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In “Federalist No. 74,” Alexander Hamilton envisioned the presidential pardon as a “benign prerogative,” an act of mercy important enough to supersede all other laws.
Late on August 24, 1814, a troop of about 150 British sailors and marines arrived at the White House. They did not come as honored guests, though they would treat themselves as such. James and Dolley Madison, the official residents, had fled earlier amid preparations for an event in the formal dining room. The table was already set, the food prepared, and the British helped themselves to a sumptuous feast, toasting the future King George IV and commenting on the fine Madeira.
As a naval aviator, Alvin Holsey trained to conduct missions that required precise targeting. For years, his job was to fly helicopters over potential targets and, using radar and other detectors, assess whether they posed a threat to the United States; if so, he had to determine whether to launch an attack.
On September 2, Holsey, now an admiral leading the U.S.
The shutdown of the federal government that began on October 1, now the second-longest in history, has also been called the “most bizarre” and the “weirdest.” What makes this fight so unusual is that it is simultaneously the least angry of the five major shutdowns since 1990 and also the hardest to resolve.
This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books.
Alone on the court, tennis players can seem uniquely vulnerable. When you watch team sports, so many moving parts can catch your eye, and the emotions of individual players are subsumed by the sheer number of stories on the field. The singles tennis player is on their own, a performer thrust into the spotlight each time the ball comes their way.
The new short film Criminal highlights the injustices of the criminal legal system with a look at how for-profit bail preys on the poor and mentally ill.
“The Republican Party has really become an extremist movement.” Amid a growing political divide in the Republican Party over the release of federal documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, we speak to former Republican political operative Stuart Stevens about the erosion of support for Donald Trump from some of his most prominent backers.
Israel’s Knesset has advanced legislation that would effectively annex the West Bank, prompting rare criticism from the Trump administration, which says it does not support annexation. We get a report on the state of illegal settlement activity in the Palestinian territory from the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Jan Egeland, who has just returned from the occupied West Bank.
Are the “cockroaches” Jamie Dimon spoke of really a private credit problem or are they a bit closer to home?
It may only be the beginning of a wider crackdown for the Wolverine State’s marijuana industry.
Next week’s rain might be the start of a sinkhole near you.
Bot-made listings are forcing homebuyers and professionals to ask themselves if this is a straight-up deceptive practice.
“Deserves to be called out,” says the president of the United States about a fawning magazine cover.
Nearly as many migrants have died in detention so far this year than over the four years of the Biden administration.
Despite the Covid experience, nations aren’t proving more willing to help each other or to dig deep to help poor countries.
Jeffrey Tucker, who elevated Covid contrarians now working for the health secretary, is building support for Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.
The moves, to lower the cost of a drug prescribed to women going through IVF and boost employer coverage, follow Trump’s campaign promise to make fertility care more accessible.
States are worried Congress missed its opportunity to extend enhanced ACA subsidies and lower premiums before consumers start picking plans in a few weeks.
Two queer religion geeks move to San Francisco. And Easter communion gets real in the age of AIDS.
Troy Perry starts the gay/lesbian Metropolitan Community Church. A young lesbian is a regular at the San Francisco congregation when her friend gets sick.
Rescued archival audio takes listeners into the heart of an LGBTQ+ church during the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1980s and ’90s San Francisco.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Trump’s strength with Republicans on the economy could prove to be a boon for the GOP.
A survey from the liberal-leaning group Somos Votantes shows Latino voters are souring on the president.
Privately, aides concede voters remain uneasy about prices but argue their policies are beginning to turn things around.
In recent weeks, the United States has conducted several deadly airstrikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the Trump administration has claimed, without providing evidence, were being used to traffic drugs. A group of United Nations experts said U.S. strikes targeting boats in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela amount to “extrajudicial executions.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Gather round and let me tell you a fantastical tale of the past, when government shutdowns were highly unusual. They didn’t even occur until the 1980s, and none lasted for more than three days until 1995. We’re now in the sixth shutdown since the start of the Clinton administration.
Updated with new questions at 4:20 p.m. ET on October 23, 2025.
In the 1950s, the TV quiz show Twenty-One stumbled upon a viewership-boosting strategy that for a brief period of time would be all the rage: cheating. The program fixed winners and losers, coached contestants, and generally dabbled in malfeasance. Other shows followed suit, scandal ensued, and Congress—Congress!—got involved.
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Many stressed-out people are attracted to eastern meditation, believing that it will give them relief from their “monkey mind” and lower their anxiety about life. Unfortunately, the monkey usually wins because people find the mental focus required for meditation devilishly hard. On a trip last year to India, I asked a Buddhist teacher why Westerners struggle so much with the practice.
