Opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg and contributing Opinion writer Frank Bruni join Patrick Healy, the deputy Opinion editor, at the halfway mark of President Trump’s first 100 days in office, to reflect on how he is changing the country. Below is an edited, condensed transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it … Read more
This essay is part of The Great Migration, a series by Lydia Polgreen exploring how people are moving around the world today. Laureen Fredah’s migrant journey began as something of a lark. She was living in Kampala, the biggest city in Uganda, when she heard from a friend that Emirates, the flagship airline of the … Read more
One by one, the horses trot up the ramp and onto the track, pulling single-seat chariots behind them. Their drivers, dressed in garish green and bright pink silks, hop into position. Together, they begin to build up speed as they head into the setting sun. The clip-clop of their hooves hitting the track rises to … Read more
In 1791, the nation’s founders ratified the First Amendment to the Constitution. It would come to offer protections in the new nation essentially never seen before: the right to ask things of and to criticize the government; to express opinions, popular or not; to assemble peacefully; to practice diverse religious beliefs; and to have a … Read more
When President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to establish the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1961, he rooted its mission in America’s strategic interests and its “moral obligations as a wise leader and good neighbor,” recognizing that poverty and instability threaten America’s prosperity and security. That convergence of interests and values, upheld across Republican … Read more
A few years back, the online right became enamored of a new epithet for liberals NPC short for non-player character. Non-playable non-player character. But you don’t know about this. Do I get to tell you the NPC meme. Yes, this is the most important meme of our lifetime. The term was lifted from video games, … Read more
Medical advances have beaten back many relentless assassins in recent decades, such as cancer and heart disease. A wide range of treatments share credit: surgery, medicines, radiation, genetic therapies and healthful habits. Mortality rates for those two diseases, the top causes of death in the United States, have fallen sharply. But in an aging population, … Read more
Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer, hosted a written online conversation with Bethany McLean, an author of “The Smartest Guys in the Room,” and Nate Silver, the author of “On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything” and the newsletter Silver Bulletin, to discuss a fascinating dynamic in the new Trump administration. Frank Bruni: Bethany, … Read more
On Sunday evening, the night before Donald Trump’s second inauguration, scores of “luminaries from across the New Right” are expected to gather for a dinner and gala called the Coronation Ball at the Watergate Hotel. The event is being hosted by the young right-wing publishing house Passage Press, known for publishing the “neo-reactionary” writer Curtis … Read more
There’s an old idea about science fiction that I’ve always loved: It aims to create cognitive estrangement, to make the prietenos seem unfamiliar, so it can be looked at anew. But sometimes the opposite is needed: We need to make the unfamiliar into the prietenos, to see what is old in what feels new. This … Read more