News and opinion from both the left and the right, mixed together so you can break out of your filter bubble.
Bo French’s runoff victory gave Democrats fresh hope that they could compete for a seat regulating the state’s powerful oil and gas industry.
Iran’s nuclear program is a big one.
President Joe Biden's federal student loan forgiveness program, which promises to deliver up to $20,000 of debt relief for millions of borrowers, is on hold indefinitely as legal challenges work their way through the courts.
The former president argued that the Justice Department has a responsibility to protect the privacy of conversations he had with a former ghostwriter.
Many Democrats and some Republicans said the scandal-plagued Ken Paxton’s victory could turn Texas into a battleground state that will determine Senate control.
Vance is better off securing the Republican mantle while it’s available to him.
From Democratic antitrust theory to Mary Todd Lincoln.
The motion was particularly significant because it asked the judge overseeing the initial suit against the I.R.S. to examine the terms of the deal.
Senator John Cornyn lost to his MAGA-aligned challenger, Ken Paxton, by 28 percentage points. It was a historically poor showing.
Paxton’s win, with Trump’s support, in an intramural GOP contest tells us nothing about how the broad public views the war.
In the more addled of the left, responding to partisan enemies means contemplating the direct action of violence itself.
Texas AG Ken Paxton's victory over Sen. John Cornyn shows how much Republican voters distrust the political establishment - and are raring for a fight
This month, American moviegoers will watch Oscar-winner Brendan Fraser as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in "Pressure," alone in a storm-lashed Portsmouth headquarters in June 1944, weighing weather reports, casualty estimates, and the fate of the free…
Ball State University is the latest institution to agree to pay workers who lost their jobs over their posts about the conservative activist.
Few politicians have garnered as much scandal in Texas as Paxton, but he has ignited the MAGA base, who see him as a fighter.
John Thune backs Ken Paxton for Senate after Texas runoff victory, urging Republicans to go all in to prevent Democrats from flipping the key seat.
Five years after it helped promote a nationwide social panic over ‘unmarked graves,’ the Globe & Mail admits those graves might not actually exist—while also suggesting that it doesn’t really matter anyway.
Old Glory Blue? American Flag Blue? Let's reflect on all the shades, while a federal judge mulls "aesthetic injury" in Trump's latest decorating flourish.
Susan Owens’s handsome new monograph reconsiders the life and career of the English landscape painter John Constable.
Creating NGOs that misuse the language of human rights is an effective strategy for advancing terrorist goals.
Decoding the latest manly video from our secretary of health and human services.
Ken Paxton's supporters say they were behind him before Trump's endorsement, pointing to his conservative record and fights against Biden's policies.
Look closely at almost anything and you'll find data—lots of it. But what are those numbers really saying about who we are and what we believe? Harry Enten is on a mission to find out.
The Texas attorney general's record will mean more attention on the issue of corruption, which Democrats can run on across the country.
There will be pretrial motions to dismiss on constitutional grounds the ‘seashell’ charges that Comey threatened to kill President Trump.
The Biden administration managed to rack up a long list of major legislative wins in its first two years despite facing one of the most closely-divided Congresses in history. From bipartisan action on infrastructure, gun safety and same-sex marria…
Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on a brutal Salvadoran prison was pulled abruptly in December, said that CBS News and its top editor, Bari Weiss, had let her contract expire.
The festival aims to expose the evils of socialism that Hollywood has long ignored.
John Cornyn became the second Republican senator to lose his seat in less than two weeks. A Trump endorsement helped propel Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to a more than 25-point victory.
My nephew's schoolmate sang at Eurovision last week. Here is what the people who booed him don't understand.
A fabulous new history of the Cambridge Five by Antonia Senior provides the definitive account of Britain’s most famous traitors.
A new book about Stephen King’s early novels will only appeal to hardcore fans, but its very existence is a reminder of its subject’s incalculable cultural impact.
Go beyond the soundbites and get to know some of the most interesting players in politics.
What could be worse than a Senate candidate with a Nazi tattoo?
Expect attention to shift to the Lone Star State, as legacy media and activists converge on the new and unexpected center of the American political universe.
Let's start with the positive: Republicans and Democrats are coming together to protect same-sex marriage from the Supreme Court.
Complaint alleges the ACLU broke Missouri law by donating to a ballot measure committee after receiving a $2 million grant from a Swiss foundation.
Top Democrats break with Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner over his Nazi-linked tattoo and online scandals, sparking what some are calling a party "civil war."
Anthony Maras has made one of the best films so far this year.
Texas state troopers found nearly two dozen illegal immigrants, including four minors, hidden in a semitruck near the U.S. southern border.
The top U.S. diplomat visited the world’s largest democracy in a bid to reverse soured relations over Trump’s tariff agenda and embrace of Pakistan.
Texas AG Ken Paxton credits Trump's endorsement after defeating Sen. John Cornyn in the GOP Senate runoff, now facing Democrat James Talarico in November.
A century ago, aviation pioneer Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell advocated for the potency of properly-applied air power. In his seminal treatise from 1925, "Winged Defense," he wrote: "Aircraft do not need to pierce the line of either navies or armies. …
Outrage over a black Helen of Troy misunderstands the long Western tradition of radically reinventing classical myths.
In May 1891, Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical - "Rerum Novarum" - that gave the industrial-age West a moral vocabulary that socialist forces would never match. Exactly 135 years later in May 2026, his namesake did it again. A different civili…
One person was killed in the U.S. military’s 58th strike against vessels it accused of smuggling drugs.
Ken Paxton makes a win possible for Democrats.
Ken Paxton's 28-point primary win over Sen. John Cornyn wasn't about Trump's endorsement - it was voter frustration with a do-nothing GOP Senate.
He should be pitching himself aggressively to the unions in the entertainment business.
Ken Paxton's victory is one of several things breaking Democrats' way, putting the Senate up for grabs in 2026.
Trump mocks Texas Democrat James Talarico as Alfred E. Neuman and pledges big rallies for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton ahead of November's election.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman says declassified UAP files show real unexplained phenomena but no alien bodies or crashed ships have been found.
Follow President Trump’s progress filling over 800 positions, among about 1,300 that require Senate confirmation, in this tracker from The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service.
From the murder of a five-year-old Aboriginal girl to Melbourne's tobacco wars, Andrew Bushnell joins Zoe Sankey to examine the human cost of Australia's broken justice system.
President Donald Trump, by endorsing challengers of Republican incumbents, is creating lame-duck senators who owe him nothing.
Politics of the Day
Rep. Auchincloss drew backlash from both sides after appearing to walk back criticism of Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner.
The firm that was given a no-bid contract to fix the troubled landmark is charging 20 percent. The typical profit margin is 6 percent to 12 percent, internal records show.
President Donald Trump's remarks at a Cabinet meeting differed from his statements over the weekend that an agreement to end the war with Iran was close.
President Trump declares Iran's navy and air force are gone, warns at Cabinet meeting he may have to finish the job if no deal is reached soon.
And a few Republican senators admitted it-for a moment.
The Justice Department sued UCLA, alleging the university allowed a hostile environment for Jewish students during months of anti-Israel protests.
Podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Yale Law School professor Sarath Sanga, co-author of a new report explaining why the American public is losing trust in the country’s colleges and universities.
The president bulldozed the East Wing and remade federal panels that quickly approved his ballroom project. But he has faced barriers as he seeks to complete it.
Representative Mike Flood of Nebraska is still meeting with constituents long after most G.O.P. members of Congress have concluded it is too politically dangerous to do so.
In trying to avoid a quagmire in Iran, America found a dead end.
Democrats should unite behind Graham Platner if Maine's Democratic voters pick him over Janet Mills, but voters should make that choice.
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema decided to shake up the political world on Friday by becoming an independent. The former Democrat is still caucusing with the party in the Senate, so the Democratic caucus still has 51 members. Now, instead of 49 Democr…
Sen. Chris Murphy has a sense of what ails America, and he wants to restore its spiritual core.
Republicans are now the party of immigration restriction and know what it is they're meant to conserve: America
The runoff was a test of whether the Democratic Party could successfully distance itself from a left-wing candidate whom leaders called antisemitic.
Republican leaders in the state have asked the justices to clear the way for a congressional map that a lower court found discriminated against Black voters.
Nassau County executive and New York sheriffs threaten legal action against Gov. Hochul's push to ban 287(g) immigration cooperation with ICE.
The event structure is smart: A setting where the purpose is to disagree, with the implicit condition that whatever happens won’t result in a low grade.
The money has become a sticking point in talks, with Iran insisting that meaningful negotiations cannot begin without the funds’ release.
The new Michael Jackson biopic and the campaign to whitewash the King of Pop’s reputation.
May 23 2026
A note to editors.
All eyes are on former President Donald Trump, who has launched another White House bid.
The political news you need to know, in 10 minutes or less. Hosted by David Chalian.