Julia Ioffe • May 15, 2024

Putin’s Kharkiv Head Fake & Cabinet Kremlinology

Notes on Putin’s game theory for pressuring Kharkiv and the real reasons behind his wartime cabinet reshuffle.

Peter Hamby • May 14, 2024

Pleading the 6th

A bracing conversation with the filmmakers behind ‘The Sixth,’ the gritty new A24 documentary about what media coverage of the Capitol riot got wrong, the radical act of remembering, and how close we came to the brink.

Tara Palmeri • May 9, 2024

The Trump-TikTok Flirtation

The Chinese-owned app has become a hotbed of pro-Trump activity at precisely the moment when a putative Trump administration would provide its best shot at survival.

Tina Nguyen • May 9, 2024

Johnson’s Rules for Radicals

The once-sleepy Rules Committee, previously a glorified rubber stamp for the House speaker, has instead become an unlikely flashpoint in the G.O.P.’s ongoing civil war.

Julia Ioffe • May 8, 2024

A Czar Is Born

Vladimir Putin’s fifth inauguration speech confirms that the soft authoritarian is now a hard fascist, more isolated but also more assured than ever in his superiority above his subjects, the inevitability of victory in Ukraine, and his almost divine right to rule Russia as he sees fit.

Peter Hamby • May 7, 2024

The ’68th Sense

Hyperbolic comparisons between the ongoing campus protests and Kent State, or fearmongering over another “Chicago ’68,” are just too irresistible for our conflict-addicted media. Most of the callbacks to the ’60s are facile, clichéd, specious, and easily debunked.

Tara Palmeri • May 3, 2024

Ivanka, Interrupted

Out of the spotlight but itching to return, the former first daughter has begun quietly surveying allies about how, and when, she might help the Trump campaign—and possibly find herself back in the White House.

Tina Nguyen • May 2, 2024

A Far Right Exodus on Israel

Yes, the majority of the party is still fervently aligned with Netanyahu and his war in Gaza. But a growing number of House lawmakers, bolstered by the isolationist (and occasionally antisemitic) far right, are beginning to view Israel more as a bargaining chip than a sacred cow.

Julia Ioffe • April 30, 2024

Ukraine’s $61 Billion Question

For a while, it was easy to blame a dysfunctional Washington for Ukraine’s problems on the battlefield. Now that the supplemental is done and the aid is once again going out the door, the ball is in Ukraine’s court.

Eriq Gardner • April 30, 2024

Hunter v. Fox, A.I. Biden & Fifty Shades of Freedman

News and notes from the legal frontier: Hunter’s retort to Fox, a new definition of revenge porn, and a Bryan Freedman twist.

Peter Hamby • April 30, 2024

R.F.K. Jr. & The Aaron Rodgers Election

The Kennedy campaign is pinning its hope on a combination of alarming factors breaking their way: “double haters” who can’t stand Trump or Biden, the rise of dudebro do-your-own-researchism, and an anti-establishment turn among Gen Z men, in particular, who are ripe for R.F.K.’s contrarian message.

Tara Palmeri • April 25, 2024

Trump’s Favorite Pollster Measures the Drapes

A MAGA-inflected conversation with John McLaughlin, Mar-a-Lago’s go-to pollster, on winning Biden voters, debating R.F.K., the hush-money trial impact, and the abortion a-bomb.

Tina Nguyen • April 24, 2024

Battle Hymn of the Republicans

House hardliners are fuming, once again, after Mike Johnson jammed Ukraine funding through Congress, received CNN’s blessing, and called M.T.G.’s bluff. Do they have any cards left to play?

Julia Ioffe • April 23, 2024

From Barnard to Jerusalem

As Israel’s war with Hamas grinds on and Ivy League campuses convulse with protests, an urgent conversation with Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Biden’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, about the modern right- and left-wing varieties of an ancient hatred.

Peter Hamby • April 23, 2024

The Great Biden Israel Gamble

With protests flaring across college campuses, catastrophizing pundits are predicting Biden’s weakness with younger voters could put Trump in the White House. Last week’s Harvard Youth Poll provided a useful corrective suggesting young voters are fairly aligned with the president.