It was damp down under the blackberry bush, but Margaret liked it there; she was cozy, like a rabbit. It smelled clean—it was funny how dirt could smell so clean. She couldn’t see in the dark which berries were ripe, but she nibbled on one anyway, puckered, spat. She rested her cheek against her arm and looked across the yard.
A whoop and a stampede—the boys were running by. They must have spotted Biddy. The bright spot of the flashlight whirled. It made her dizzy trying to follow it.

Miles Brothers / U.S. National Archives
Several members of the group gather around a campfire while in Alaska’s copper country. Original caption: “Camp fire yarns.”Miles Brothers / U.S. National Archives
In June of 1902, the Miles Brothers boarded the steam schooner Santa Ana, sailing north to Valdez, with others.Miles Brothers / U.S. National Archives
Original caption: “Yakutat natives selling curios aboard the steamer.”Miles Brothers / U.S.

In some ways, Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a horror-tinged Victorian critique of the perils of existing in thrall to one’s own image, is a story ready-made for 2025. The title character, a young man of striking beauty, begins the novel as a vain but apparently harmless naif.

I say, straight-faced,
theatrical, my tone
like someone’s granny,
half sugared even
through the seeds.
It’s dumb, I know.
I’m bad at this,
inclined to leave
it up to subtext.
The day flat got away
from us is how
one might, with
dignity, confess.
I’m taking it
as testament
to what we didn’t
rush. Good Lord—
I try again
and spit. Forgive
the utter glut
of this, the counter’s
sour dishes, the heap
of sheets undone,
tufts of dog hair
floating where
the late sun hits.

As the Trump administration rounds up people it alleges to be illegal aliens and gang members, deports them to El Salvador, and pays to imprison them there without convicting them of any crime, constitutional challenges have focused on the Fifth Amendment; the administration appears to have deprived many deportees of liberty without due process.

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Donald Trump is shaking up his Cabinet, while his immigration agenda faces mounting pushback from the courts. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss.

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Think back to a good time you recently had with a loved one: an hours-long conversation with a friend or a perfect night of watching TV on the couch with family. I’d venture to guess you still feel a little surge of warmth when you recall it.