From our October 2009 issue, here’s Ted Kooser’s “Gabardine” in its entirety:To sit in sunlight with other old men,none with his legs crossed, our feet in loose shoeshot and flat on the earth, hands curled in our lapsor on our knees, like birds that now and thenfly up with our wo … | Continue reading
Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the far-right National Front, is through to the second round of the French presidential election, where she will face Emmanuel Macron, the independent, who won Sunday's first round with 23.7 percent of the vote. Le Pen won 21.7 percent. It's the fi … | Continue reading
Establishment candidates and parties will be scrutinized in elections this year in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.A slate of populist parties across Europe have grown in strength since the global recession of 2008. That, coupled with the success of the Brexit movement in th … | Continue reading
John Donne begins the fourteenth of his Holy Sonnets with a demand that surprised me with its intensity:Batter my heart, three person’d God, for youAs yet but knock breathe, shine, and seek to mend;That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bendYour force to break, blow, burn, … | Continue reading
China, the world’s rising superpower, is experiencing an explosion of faith. The decades of anti-religious campaigns that followed the 1949 communist takeover are giving way to a spiritual transformation—and among the fastest-growing drivers of that transformation are unregistere … | Continue reading
—France holds its first round of presidential elections in what will be another test for the spread of populist nationalism sweeping Europe.—North Korea has detained three U.S. citizens and threatened to attack a Navy vessel with missiles.—American Airlines apologized and suspend … | Continue reading
WASHINGTON, D.C.—They marched for science, and at first, they did so quietly. On Saturday, as thousands of people started streaming eastward from the Washington Monument, in a river of ponchos and umbrellas, the usual raucous chats that accompany such protests were rarely heard a … | Continue reading
Donald Trump entered the White House as one of the most scandal-tarred presidents in American history—what his imbroglios may have lacked in depth, they made up in variety, encompassing legal, ethical, and sexual controversies. (In a twist, one of Trump’s few competitors for the … | Continue reading
“I am writing to tell you that I am gay and I am a Christian.”That was the opening line of the letter Richard Grenell, a former United Nations official, sent his evangelical parents when he decided to come out in 1999. He had kept his sexual orientation a secret from them for yea … | Continue reading
In “Projection,” from our May 1967 issue, two-time poet laureate Howard Nemerov muses about map-making and artistic possibility:They were so amply beautiful, the maps,With their blue rivers winding to the sea,So calmly beautiful, who could have blamedUs for believing, bowed to ou … | Continue reading
For decades, being a coal miner has come with a deal: Work in dangerous, unpleasant conditions for years, and in exchange, get lifelong health-care benefits and a decent pension. Now, though, part of that deal is jeopardy, as the funds that provide those benefits have dwindled.Wh … | Continue reading
—The death toll from a Taliban attack on an Afghan military base rises to 100.—Thirteen people were killed in protests against Venezuela’s president, in what have become regular and massive demonstrations.—We’re tracking the news stories of the day below. All updates are in Easte … | Continue reading
Kendrick Lamar’s Holy Spirit Hua Hsu | The New Yorker“The considerable pressure put on Lamar has been unfair, and Damn rejects the notion that he has all the answers. Still, within hours of its release, there were theories, which proved to be untrue, that on the first track Lamar … | Continue reading
Immediately after the bombing of the Borussia Dortmund soccer team’s bus earlier this month, German police found three identical letters that seemed to support what everyone already believed. Several pipe bombs had hit the side of the bus as it drove to a match April 11, shatteri … | Continue reading
No one French candidate is likely to receive 50 percent of the votes needed in Sunday’s presidential election to avoid a runoff. Voters are picking from 11 candidates, two of whom will advance to the second round in May, and one, eventually, to the Élysée Palace. The election pit … | Continue reading
We’re facing a week with three environmental news pegs: It’s Earth Day, the March for Science is today, and senior advisors at the White House will soon meet to decide whether the United States will remain in the Paris Agreement.Because of all three, you will probably soon hear a … | Continue reading
During argument in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer last week before the Supreme Court, Justice Elena Kagan mused that the case poses “a hard issue. It's an issue in which states have their own very longstanding law. It's an issue on which I guess I'm going to say nobody is compl … | Continue reading
What We’re FollowingThe Attack in France: Yesterday, ISIS claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on police in Paris that killed one officer and wounded two others. The shooting happened just days before the first round of France’s presidential election, in which anger over … | Continue reading
Don’t MissThe United States of Billy Joel—Adam Chandler investigates how the Piano Man, who hasn’t released a new pop album since 1993, continues to sell out stadiums.ShowtimeFilmWhat’s in Store at This Year’s Cannes Film Festival—David Sims reports on the surprising titles to sc … | Continue reading
It’s been a busy week for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly are currently touring the U.S.-Mexico border to draw attention to illegal immigration and its impact on the country. But a series of remarks from Sessions about places far from … | Continue reading
Today in 5 LinesPresident Trump signed an executive order that will start the process of rolling back several Obama-era regulations intended to curtail corporate tax evasion. In an interview with the Associated Press, Trump said he plans to unveil a tax-reform package early next … | Continue reading
On Friday, President Donald Trump continued his efforts to scale back the Dodd-Frank Act, a sweeping piece of legislation from 2010 put in place in the wake of the financial crisis in hopes of curbing bad behavior on Wall Street. As he signed two memoranda targeting Dodd-Frank, T … | Continue reading
When attorney Necmi Acar arrived at a polling station this past Sunday in Oyuktas, a village in southeast Turkey, he was greeted by an armed squad of rural policemen. Voting had just begun in a referendum that, if passed, would consolidate governmental powers under the presidency … | Continue reading
In March, a panel of federal judges ruled that Texas’s current congressional district maps had been intentionally drawn to “pack” and “dilute” minority votes in three districts in a way that constituted not only partisan advantage—which is legal—but racial discrimination. Earlier … | Continue reading
Linda Gregerson’s “Waterborne,” from our May 2000 issue, captures many of the distinctive features of her verse. It’s subtly, hauntingly beautiful and suffused with a creeping sense of horror cut through with poignant wonder. With associative sleights of pen, it connects a varied … | Continue reading
A Prayer’s ChanceBrian Goldstone | Harper’s“When Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s founding prime minister, assumed office in 1957, he had ambitious plans for his country. A number of his grandiose designs for an ‘industrialized socialist society’ came to fruition, but most did not. Among t … | Continue reading
Since the 1930s, a president’s first 100 days in office have been used to measure the new administration’s progress and potential success—for example, by his 100th day, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed 76 bills into law and pushed for new federal jobs programs. P … | Continue reading
The attack Thursday on the Champs Elysées in Paris, three days before Sunday’s presidential election, resulted in headlines about the impact it would have on the vote—“How Paris police shooting could shape French election,” “Will the Paris Attack Help Le Pen Win the French Presid … | Continue reading
As every good populist knows, you can’t run a revolution without enemies. Otherwise, you might have to admit people are mad at you for a good reason. Donald Trump, for example, has pegged protests on his predecessor’s people. “I think that President Obama’s behind it because his … | Continue reading
A massive statue of a Miao goddess erected in China, the “weed nuns” of California, an Easter rocket war in Greece, the “smelling the breeze” spring holiday in Egypt, the “Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking event” in England, a manned rocket launch in Kazakhstan, and much more. | Continue reading
There are endless poems about the beginning and end of love. Poems celebrating loves that have somehow managed to endure years of familiarity, however, are somewhat thinner on the ground. That’s a pity, because we need them—both to reflect many people’s lived experience, and to g … | Continue reading
PARIS—When French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron stepped on stage at the AccorHotels Arena Monday afternoon for his final major rally before the first round of voting, 20,000 people filled the stands, and many others watched on screens outside. “Do you hear the murmur of … | Continue reading
Two days after the 2016 presidential election, Isabel Lowell appeared on a panel at the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians annual meeting in midtown Atlanta. As a family physician who sees transgender patients, Lowell was leading a full day of training on providing trans-compet … | Continue reading
Juicero is a startup that sells a $400 machine that squeezes packets of diced fruit and vegetables to produce fresh juice. A person might assume that a product so simple and boring, yet weirdly expensive, couldn’t possibly attract the entire internet’s derision. A person would be … | Continue reading
In recent months, the ascent of leaders and movements denounced by their rivals as “populist” has given the world the false impression that those leaders offer some kind of distinct ideology.So-called populists do run on platforms that challenge the status quo; it is also true th … | Continue reading
Everyone knows the feeling: There’s a big deadline coming up at work, and you’re not sure you’re going to get everything you need done before it. As the end of the semester approaches at colleges around the nation, plenty of students are feeling it, and President Trump can sympat … | Continue reading
On a cool spring day, you find yourself with a hankering for beef stew. There are many ways to eat this desired meal. You could go to the grocery store, purchase the ingredients, and assemble them at home. You could outsource all of that labor and simply order the dish at a resta … | Continue reading
The Collapse of America’s First Sports-Only CollegePeter Keating | ESPN the MagazineForest Trail Sports University ... promised a new kind of college experience, focused on athletics. And these players—they have named themselves the Renegades, but Refugees would be just as accura … | Continue reading
Leave it to an intimate biopic of the reclusive 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson to feature the most powerful special effect of the year. The first 20 minutes of A Quiet Passion follow Dickinson as a teenager, played by Emma Bell; she attends a Christian boarding school at which … | Continue reading
Jeff Sessions on Wednesday derided the U.S. district judge who blocked President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban. He called the matter “huge,” in a radio interview, then went on to say:I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that st … | Continue reading
When I was asked to speak at the Los Angeles installment of the March for Science, a vision leapt unbidden to my mind: thousands of scientists and science-lovers gathered in Pershing Square, carrying whiteboards and graphs, arguing with each other about how to properly interpret … | Continue reading
A hidden assumption underlies the debate over North Korea. The assumption is that preventive war—war against a country that poses no imminent threat but could pose a threat in the future—is morally legitimate. To be sure, many politicians oppose an attack on practical grounds: Th … | Continue reading
Exploring the web of the early 1990s meant wandering into strange new territory, made stranger by the way people talked about it at the time.Terms like “cyberspace,” “World Wide Web,” and “information superhighway” sound like throwbacks now, but back then they were utterly and un … | Continue reading
When a robot almost looks human—almost, but not quite—it often comes across as jarringly fake instead of familiar. Robots that are clearly artificial, like WALL-E or R2-D2, don’t have this problem. But androids like this one that imperfectly mimic human mannerisms and facial expr … | Continue reading
SAN DIEGO—In the main room of a onetime fraternity house at the edge of San Diego State University, a small group of students labors quietly, laser-focused, over textbooks and laptops.More From The Hechinger ReportHigh school should be more like preschool Sub shortage leaves scho … | Continue reading
Nine days ago, a stream of photons exploded off the sun’s corona and flew 93 million miles, to the blue, wave-wrinkled surface of the southern Atlantic ocean. The dark waters swallowed some of these photons, but others ricocheted back into space, where they traveled nearly 900 mi … | Continue reading
—More details are emerging of the man who carried out yesterday’s attack in Paris that killed a police officer.—Arkansas carried out its first execution since 2005 after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a temporary stay.—We’re tracking the news stories of the day below. All updates … | Continue reading
Early in his career, Teodor Postolache, a psychiatry professor at the University of Maryland, was struck by a peculiar trend that comes up again and again in the suicide research. Across decades and in various countries, suicide is much more common in the spring and early summer … | Continue reading