Donald Trump’s Justice Department is firing some of the nation’s most experienced counterterrorism prosecutors and experts, apparently for political reasons. Line prosecutors and terrorism experts across the country are watching with alarm, although many are afraid to say so publicly.
On Wednesday night, the department pushed out Michael Ben’Ary, who was head of national security at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Members of the U.S. military have long had a tradition of giving or exchanging “challenge coins.” The medallions have no monetary value; they come in various shapes and sizes, but most are about the size of a silver dollar, and they carry the symbols and names of military units or commands. Members of those units carry them to give to others as tokens of esteem.

Updated with new questions at 4:25 p.m. ET on October 3, 2025.
In the 1960s, the authors of one of the world’s first popular compendiums of fun and interesting facts entreated readers not to mistake the “flower of Trivia” for the “weed of minutiae.” Trivia stimulates the mind, Edwin Goodgold and Dan Carlinsky wrote in More Trivial Trivia; minutiae stymie it.

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During prime-time football last Sunday, OpenAI debuted its biggest ad campaign yet, emphasizing three possible uses for ChatGPT: making dinner recipes, creating workout routines, and planning road trips.

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books.
Anna Holmes has never forgotten reading Judy Blume’s Forever as a tween. Why? Because the book, published 50 years ago this month, happily acknowledged that a teenage girl might want to have sex, and that she might even enjoy it, as Holmes wrote last week.