President Donald Trump has a way with scandal. His biggest controversies are so huge, so ludicrously bamboozling, that they suck up much of the attention in the country. The smaller disputes facing his staff can therefore slip by unnoticed. In his three-week-old administration, … | Continue reading
In his book Rules of the Game: Quiz Shows and American Culture, the communications professor Olaf Hoerschelmann suggests how neatly American game shows have reflected the times that produced them. The radio quiz shows popular in the 1930s and 1940s used “man on the street”-framed … | Continue reading
The immediate question raised by the latest information published by The New York Times is: What next? Will Congress investigate? Will it subpoena records, including the tax records that may clarify the financial obligations—if any—Donald Trump has to Russia? And since Congress i … | Continue reading
When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in Congress right now are a bundle of nerves.As Obamacare’s supporters jam town-hall meetings across the country, GOP lawmakers in competitive states and districts are growing nervous about repealing the law without a replacem … | Continue reading
To paraphrase presidential candidate Donald Trump, somebody’s doing the leaking. But who, and why, and does it represent a defense of American democratic norms or a death knell for them?There’s no shortage of theories. Some of the damaging leaks are emerging from the White House, … | Continue reading
A total of 2,908 dogs were entered in this year’s 141st annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, consisting of 200 different breeds or varieties. “Best in Show” was awarded yesterday to a German Shepherd named Rumor. Below are images from the two-day competition held in New York … | Continue reading
What kind of art will come out of this moment? If Ali Smith’s Autumn is a harbinger of things to come, the work that emerges over the next decade will be extraordinarily rich. The novel, the first book in a quartet inspired by the seasons, considers post-Brexit Britain at the tai … | Continue reading
Leaving my school building the other day, I had an unexpected realization: Perhaps a computer was a more effective teacher than I currently was. The thought unnerved me, and still does as I’m writing this. I’m a nearly 13-year veteran educator dedicated to reflecting upon and ref … | Continue reading
President Trump on Thursday appeared to suggest that his immediate predecessor’s Russia policy resulted in Russian’s invasion and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?— Donald J. … | Continue reading
The sign on the fence says, “Caution: A panda may be in this yard.” And as I peer through a glass panel, I see that it is accurate. There is, indeed, a panda in the yard.Her name is Bao Bao, and on this cold and windy afternoon at Washington D.C.’s National Zoo, she is prostate a … | Continue reading
Each year, in the first week of April, thousands of businesses enter an immigration lottery to win several of 85,000 H-1B visas, which are awarded each year for foreign-born workers in "specialty" jobs, often in technology and science.There are two classic ways of thinking about … | Continue reading
By some accounts, the deluge of leaks detailing the hurdles and setbacks that have troubled the first weeks of the Trump administration have provoked panic among its highest ranks—and prompted top officials to try to identify the leaky staffers. President Trump has tweeted his di … | Continue reading
By Heart is a series in which authors share and discuss their all-time favorite passages in literature. See entries from Karl Ove Knausgaard, Jonathan Franzen, Emma Donoghue, Michael Chabon, and more.Doug McLeanThis week marks the publication of Lincoln in the Bardo, the long-awa … | Continue reading
School choice aids and abets segregation—or so goes the logic of many of the policy’s loudest critics. But a study recently published in Education and Urban Society provides evidence to the contrary: A voucher program actually reduced racial stratification in the public schools t … | Continue reading
A Cure for Wellness opens with a foreboding shot of a nightmarish edifice looming over the viewer at a canted angle. It’s not the creepy Swiss sanatorium where most of Gore Verbinski’s demented new film is set. No, it’s a Manhattan skyscraper, where a stressed-out office worker ( … | Continue reading
Washington, D.C. (February 15, 2017)— Is Michael K. Williams being typecast? Are you?The Atlantic invites audiences to question their assumptions in a riveting short film starring an actor known for the nuanced complexity of the characters he portrays. The film is the centerpiece … | Continue reading
The controversy over former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States has revived interest in an obscure 18th century federal law known as the Logan Act.On Monday evening, Flynn resigned after reports that he had dis … | Continue reading
More than 800,000 Americans have signed a petition demanding the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns. Polls show that a majority of the country wants to see the documents.On April 15, tens of thousands plan to take to the streets in protest of the president’s refusal to release … | Continue reading
—Multiple news organizations are reporting that several aides to Donald Trump were in regular touch with Russian officials before the election. The reports came a day after Mike Flynn, the president’s national-security adviser, resigned over what he told White House officials abo … | Continue reading
It’s night, on a tropical beach, and a 300-found green turtle is hauling herself up a beach. When she passes the high tide line, she starts scooping sand away with her hind flippers, creating a deep hole. She fills it with eggs—100 to 200 leathery, white spheres, which she then b … | Continue reading
When a bullet penetrates a person’s body, sometimes it follows a clean path and lands in a harmless place.First-time gunshot victims tend to be surprised to learn that the bullet often doesn’t need to be removed. Assuming that bullet fragments aren’t lodged near something like a … | Continue reading
Like all cult beauty products worthy of throwing $20 (or more) at, I heard about spraying French water on my face via word-of-mouth and researched it further by perusing beauty blogs. On a vacation in Paris a couple years ago, friends had urged me to go to “that famous pharmacy i … | Continue reading
Joe Alsop was the dean of Washington’s foreign-policy columnists, a committed Cold Warrior, the doyen of Georgetown society, close confidante to presidents, senators, secretaries of state—and secretly gay. On one fateful, February 1957 Moscow evening, all these identities collide … | Continue reading
One of the many monumental aspects of Wednesday’s summit between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C., is that, for the first time in about a decade, accounts of a meeting between an American president and an Israeli prime minister aren’t likely to be character … | Continue reading
In February of 2015, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, was going through a rough period. Amid a contentious election in Israel, the Obama administration accused him of conspiring with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill to arrange an invitation for Israeli Prim … | Continue reading
The ideal of a non-violent diet goes back to the origins of most world religions. Adam and Eve’s prelapsarian diet was plant-based, while in the East, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism all embraced the concept of ahimsa, or non-violence toward living things—even if many Hindus and … | Continue reading
In 1962, a young reporter named Ursula Vils signed on to The Los Angeles Times at the beginning of the most spectacular and productive period of human spaceflight in United States history. A year earlier, Alan Shepard had become the first American to fly in space, and eight month … | Continue reading
Nothing Donald Trump has done since becoming President is particularly surprising. The attacks on judges and the press, the clash of civilizations worldview, the ignorance of public policy, the blurring of government service and private gain, the endless lying, the incompetence, … | Continue reading
If the leaks that doomed Michael Flynn were a signal from the intelligence community, perhaps the message they intended to carry was: You ain’t seen nothing yet.The national security adviser’s abrupt resignation Monday night, which the White House says was a firing, came after it … | Continue reading
What We’re FollowingMichael Flynn: Trump’s national security adviser resigned last night after admitting he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his talks with Russia’s ambassador. The White House’s explanation of how that happened has been shifting—it’s unclear whether Trump, … | Continue reading
Amid the turmoil that followed the resignation of Michael Flynn, one of the members of the “Gang of Eight”—the top congressional leaders on intelligence matters—issued a sharp rebuttal to the American president. Donald Trump had tweeted that the “real story” behind the fall of hi … | Continue reading
As soon as news reached Moscow that Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn had resigned after it became clear he had lied to the vice president about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, hawkish Russian lawmakers began to hyperventilate. Shadowy elements in Was … | Continue reading
Today in 5 LinesWhite House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the “eroding level of trust” between the president and his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, drove Trump to ask for Flynn’s resignation—an account that differs from those of White House reporters. Senate Majorit … | Continue reading
Breitbart News has a target in its crosshairs following the departure of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn from the White House in a cascade of scandal over his contacts with the Russian government: White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.Targeting Priebus, who leads … | Continue reading
The U.S. Office of Government Ethics recommended Monday that the White House investigate Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump advisor, for possible disciplinary action after she publicly endorsed Ivanka Trump’s products in a national television interview last week.“Under the present cir … | Continue reading
Wash, rinse, repeat: The cover-up is always worse than the crime.As much change as President Trump has tried to bring to Washington in his eventful first weeks as president, he hasn’t yet altered the enduring truth in that Watergate-era cliché. Michael Flynn discovered it anew on … | Continue reading
In the 20th century, one of the standout features of the U.S. workforce was Americans’ willingness to chase economic opportunity to new cities, regions, and states. Geographic mobility makes for a more flexible workforce, and that flexibility can be a boon for an economy, with wo … | Continue reading
Ivan Cash’s short video Signs of the Times takes place at a San Francisco protest against Donald Trump’s travel ban. In the film, protesters explain why they are holding particular signs. In Cash’s words, his film attempts to “explore the art of protest and why people choose the … | Continue reading
The White House is taking a mulligan on its selection of a national security adviser, replacing Michael Flynn just 24 days into his tenure. It’s seeking a do-over on its messaging of Flynn’s departure, too.During a briefing Tuesday afternoon, Press Secretary Sean Spicer tried to … | Continue reading
Imagine Jupiter as it’s usually depicted: A bulbous marble, with alternating bands of reds, oranges, yellows, and creams, a few wisps of blue and green, and that unmistakable round spot just south of the equator, the mark of a storm that has churned for decades.This sideways view … | Continue reading
Tuesday’s guilty verdict in the kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Etan Patz, whose abduction rattled New York City in 1979, is the latest step toward solving a decades-old mystery.It’s also a reminder of how dramatically information-distribution channels have evolved in recent … | Continue reading
In the final moments of The Young Pope’s first season, the elusive Pope Pius XIII finally showed his face to the world for a sermon in Venice that addressed one question: “Who is God?”This is a central question of religion, but it is not the central question of The Young Pope. Ov … | Continue reading
Organizers of the Underwater Photographer of the Year Contest have just announced their winning photos for 2017. The winner Gabriel Barathieu beat entrants from 67 different countries with his portrait of an octopus in the lagoon of the island of Mayotte. Prizes and commendations … | Continue reading
Donald Trump is falling behind, and he knows it. His Cabinet, while growing, still has too many empty seats. For a developer accustomed to hiring and firing employees at will, the laborious Senate confirmation process—hearings! debates! cloture votes!—must feel like the longest r … | Continue reading
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the White House on February 15th, the visit will be unlike any other—and not only because of the turmoil roiling the Trump administration following the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. After 11 years … | Continue reading
Last fall, after America learned about a videotape featuring the Republican presidential candidate bragging about groping women, Michelle Obama delivered a fiery speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, seemingly condemning his behavior. “This wasn’t just locker-room banter,” Obama s … | Continue reading
Like many young couples in love in Germany, Julia Pichl and Javad Ganjkhanloo post pictures of themselves on Facebook, go on dates to the park, and dream of moving into a small apartment together. Unlike other couples, however, they face an uncertain future that rests on a slow-m … | Continue reading
As an Ann Arbor native and Michigan football fanatic, I’m one of hundreds of thousands who deeply appreciate coach Jim Harbaugh. In his two years, Michigan has gone from having a 5-7 record, with no national ranking and no bowl appearance, to two 10-3 seasons, a top 10 national p … | Continue reading