I was a socialist in college. I read magazines like The Nation and old issues of The New Masses. I dreamed of being the next Clifford Odets, a lefty playwright who was always trying to raise proletarian class consciousness. If you go on YouTube and search “David Brooks Milton Friedman,” you can see a 22-year-old […]
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It should come as no surprise that I believe in the power of protest. That’s why I moved to Washington to start what I call Fire Drill Fridays, joining the millions of young people around the world who turned out in the fall for protests to demand that our leaders act to save their futures. […]
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Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device: Via Apple Podcasts | Via RadioPublic | Via Stitcher For decades, the United States has spent billions of dollars trying to close its education gap with the rest of the world. New data shows that all that money made little difference. Today, we investigate how […]
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I don’t know how the Second Amendment case the Supreme Court heard this week will turn out, but I do know this: If the subject weren’t so serious, the case in its current posture, with substantial doubt about whether there is even a dispute left for the court to decide, would be downright funny. For […]
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With the conclusion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 70th anniversary summit in London, it’s fair to say that Donald Trump thinks that most alliance members, starting with France and Canada, are a bunch of ungrateful and unhelpful freeloaders. Fair to say, also, that most of those members see Trump as an erratic, pompous, dangerous […]
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LONDON — When President Trump left the NATO gathering early and in a huff on Wednesday, it only reinforced the fear that with America distracted and retreating, the West’s celebrated alliance has lost focus. The 70th anniversary celebrations in London largely illuminated NATO’s uncertainty about whether its primary mission is defending against a disruptive Russia, […]
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Won’t you spare a thought for America’s medical debt collectors? And while you’re at it, will you say a prayer for the nation’s health care billing managers? Let’s also consider the kindly, economically productive citizens in swing states whose job it is to jail pregnant women and the parents of cancer patients for failing to […]
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The Trump administration recently began the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, citing “the unfair economic burden imposed on American workers, businesses and taxpayers” by the United States’ pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, expressed similar sentiments: “Australia won’t write a blank check with its economy” to […]
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A potato paucity is upon us, and French fry aficionados are worried. Multiple news headlines this week have warned of a “possible French fry shortage” this year after a weaker harvest for many potato farmers in the United States and Canada. But experts say French fry consumers probably shouldn’t worry too much, because producers of […]
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LONDON — Their bromance once made headlines. But on Tuesday, it was clear that the days of President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France trading cheek kisses and clasping hands were gone. On the sidelines of a gathering for the 70th anniversary of NATO, Mr. Trump took his one-time friend to task, denouncing comments […]
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The call came on a Friday. When it came, I thought my boss was going to congratulate me for winning a research prize just announced that morning. Instead, she told me I would be contacted shortly by the Danish police; the university had just learned I was facing criminal charges for violating my work and […]
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The recent results of the Program for International Student Assessment have teachers and those invested in America’s education system engaged in a spirited discussion about what is to blame for the country’s stagnant test results and what should be done about it. The test, which is given every three years, measures a 15-year-old student’s reading, […]
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LONDON — President Trump began a two-day summit meeting on Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of NATO — an alliance that has been strained, in part, by his own brash handling of overseas allies — by lashing out at one of them. In a meeting with Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, Mr. […]
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The performance of American teenagers in reading and math has been stagnant since 2000, according to the latest results of a rigorous international exam, despite a decades-long effort to raise standards and help students compete with peers across the globe. And the achievement gap in reading between high and low performers is widening. Although the […]
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Additional charges are likely in the criminal case against two longtime associates of President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a federal prosecutor said Monday. The associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested in October and charged with concealing the source of political donations in order to advance their own business interests and the […]
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Turning Point: The United States and China intensified their trade war in 2019, plunging global markets into uncertainty. When did Cold War II begin? Future historians will say it was in 2019. Some will insist that a new Cold War had already begun — with Russia — in 2014, when Moscow sent its troops into […]
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Near Denver, migrants are locked inside a prison tucked into an industrial quarter. To the southwest, in the vast space between Phoenix and Tucson, they are surrounded by barbed wire in facilities that seem to rise right out of the Sonoran Desert. Imprisoning migrants this way is lucrative for prison corporations and politicians, and it’s […]
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Lisa Page, the former F.B.I. lawyer who became a frequent target of President Trump after criticizing him in text messages during his candidacy in 2016, ended nearly two years of public silence in an interview with The Daily Beast published on Sunday. Since her text messages were made public in 2017, Ms. Page has often […]
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WASHINGTON — House Democrats return to Washington on Monday facing a difficult choice: Should they hand President Trump a victory in the midst of a heated impeachment battle or walk away from one of the most progressive trade pacts ever negotiated by either party? The Trump administration agreed with Canada and Mexico on revisions to […]
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A 65-year-old Maine man was fatally shot after he triggered a booby trap he had set in his house, according to the authorities. The Police Department in Van Buren, Maine, received a phone call on Thanksgiving evening from the man, Ronald Cyr, 65, saying he had been shot, the department said in a Facebook post. […]
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Brad Gobright, an acclaimed American free solo climber, has died after falling nearly 1,000 feet while scaling a well-known route in Mexico, the authorities said. Mr. Gobright, 31, fell to his death on Wednesday while climbing a rock known as El Sendero Luminoso, or the Shining Path, in the Potrero Chico national park in northern […]
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Last week, in defense of her father, Ivanka Trump tweeted out a quotation she wrongly attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville: “A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office.” The misquotation […]
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THE FULL EPISODE WILL BE AVAILABLE TO TIMES SUBSCRIBERS IN THE U.S. ONMONDAY, Jan. 5 [You can also watch “The Weekly” on FX, Hulu, and in these areas outside the U.S.] Episode 22: ‘The Hot List’ Producer/Director John Pappas When a big bear of a man in flip-flops showed up with a bottle of Japanese […]
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