The 37-volume Naturalis Historia, written by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, is the world’s earliest surviving encyclopedia. In the first century C.E., Pliny set out to collect the breadth of human knowledge, and millennia later, it’s still a great document for learning a little bit about everything. It has chapters on sugar, Germany, the rainbow, Cesarean births, the art of painting, and hypothetical antipodes.
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In 1949, the German historian and political philosopher Hannah Arendt visited Europe for the first time since fleeing to America during the war. A year later, she wrote an analysis of what she called “the aftermath of Nazi rule.
The revelation that Donald Trump has demolished the East Wing, with plans to rebuild it at jumbo size with private funds, provoked an initial wave of outrage—followed by a predictable counter-wave of pseudo-sophisticated qualified defenses.
“In classic Trump fashion, the president is pursuing a reasonable idea in the most jarring manner possible,” editorializes The Washington Post.
American Presidents are plainly meant to be term-limited. The Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified in 1951, spells it out: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Donald Trump has sometimes sung a different tune, though. In March, he told NBC News that “there are methods” by which he could continue serving past the end of his term, and that he was “not joking.” Riffing on this, the Trump Organization’s website began selling “Trump 2028” paraphernalia.
We speak to Wole Soyinka, the 91-year-old celebrated Nigerian writer and first African Nobel laureate, who recently had his U.S. visa revoked after he made comments critical of Trump. As Trump threatens U.S. military action against Nigeria over claims of a “Christian genocide” in the country, Soyinka says, “when religious differences began to be invoked as a means of political power, and even social and economic powers, we’ve had unquestionably the issue of impunity.
President Trump is threatening to bomb Nigeria, alleging the country is failing to protect Christians from persecution, even as many victims of the fundamentalist insurgent group Boko Haram are Muslims. “This theme of persecution of Christians is a very politically charged, and actually religiously charged, theme for evangelicals across the world,” says Anthea Butler, the author of White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America.
Democracy Now!’s Anjali Kamat reports on working-class South Asian support for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. South Asian voter turnout increased by 40% during the Democratic primary, contributing to Mamdani’s upset victory against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is now running as an independent candidate. “We’ve had several South Asian or Indo-Caribbean candidates, and none of them elicit this response.
President Trump held a lavish Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago Friday, just hours before an estimated 42 million people lost SNAP benefits across the country. Kirk Curnutt, the executive director of the international F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, says that while ”Gatsby is famous for its lavish party scenes, [what] people often miss is that the entire thrust of the book is to critique that conspicuous consumption and the wastage that goes on in these sorts of events.
As the U.S. federal government shutdown enters its second month, over 40 million people are now struggling to feed themselves and their families after SNAP food assistance was cut off over the weekend. “We are headed for a major public health and economic crisis,” says child hunger expert Mariana Chilton. She adds that by refusing to disburse SNAP benefits, “the Trump administration is breaking the law.
Maurizio Cattelan’s conceptual piece “America” was stolen in 2019 – but it turns out he made another gold toilet and you can bid on it soon!
Andrew Ross Sorkin joins Felix Salmon and Elizabeth Spiers to discuss his new book on Wall Street’s most infamous crash.
In a special Slate Money and Death, Sex and Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale discuss the financial and emotional implications of having children
Ray Madoff joins Felix Salmon and Emily Peck to discuss her book The Second Estate on the ways in which the US tax code helps the rich get richer.
At the headquarters for Donald Trump’s darkest work, a few people are getting under the administration’s skin.
The premium hikes can be higher or lower depending on a person’s state, income and how much help they receive. For some, the loss of subsidies can amount to triple-digit increases.
Rachel Riley, a former McKinsey partner, helped execute sweeping layoffs at the health department this spring. Behind the scenes, her methods sparked turmoil.
In an interview with POLITICO, Martin Kulldorff said the health secretary has asked him to impartially follow the science.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has promoted unproven claims linking Tylenol use to autism.
House Republicans in the toughest races in the nation are generally open to talks with Democrats on extending subsidies, with caveats.
AIDS helps forge an unlikely friendship between two San Francisco churches from very different neighborhoods with very different views on sexuality.
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.
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.
Omar Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants and a democratic socialist, is a leading candidate in the mayoral race in Minneapolis and seeking to unseat incumbent Jacob Frey. Fateh made history in 2020 by becoming the first Muslim and first Somali American to be elected to Minnesota’s state Senate. Fateh has run for mayor on a platform advocating for rent stabilization, raising the minimum wage and reforming how the city handles public safety.
A retired U.S. colonel who investigated the death of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh has gone public to accuse the Biden administration of “inaction” and a possible “cover-up.” Steve Gabavics says the U.S. government soft-pedaled the finding that Israeli forces intentionally killed her to appease the Israeli government.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is calling for federal agents to pause immigration enforcement in the Chicago area until after Halloween, amid widespread condemnation of violent arrests and confrontations with residents. Meanwhile, the person at the center of much of Chicago’s enforcement, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, did a five-hour deposition Thursday in a case challenging federal agents’ treatment of protesters, journalists, children and immigrants.
