Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty
A person dressed in a Statue of Liberty costume participates in a “No Kings” national day of protest in New York on October 18, 2025.Alyssa Pointer / Reuters
People attend a “No Kings” protest against American President Donald Trump’s policies, in Atlanta on October 18, 2025.Alyssa Pointer / Reuters
A person looks on during the “No Kings” protest in Atlanta on October 18, 2025.

When I was a kid, living in Lawrenceville, Virginia, I heard tales about how the James River was haunted: perhaps by the spirits of Indigenous people who were forced off this land, or maybe by those who gave their lives to revolution, or maybe by enslaved men, women, and children who drowned while trying to escape their plantations. The ghost stories seemed to suit a river that’s connected to America’s soul.

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One of my favorite moments of elementary-school science class was “microscope day,” a version of show-and-tell where kids brought in everyday objects to marvel at under the lens.

After Donald Trump’s win in 2024, commentators declared the so-called Resistance “dead” and “futile.” The opposition movement against Trump had been embarrassing, ineffective, a performative failure that did nothing “besides making the #Resisters feel good about themselves.” With the country now nine months into Trump’s second term, though, reports of the death of the Resistance turn out to have been exaggerated. The movement looks different than it did the last time around.

The week began with a diplomatic breakthrough and a (fragile) cease-fire in a years-long war. It ends with another conflict stuck in a bloody, frustrating rut. Donald Trump has made it his mission to achieve peace in both. But the deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and return the last living Israeli hostages came about in part because Trump used his leverage to push both sides to make concessions.

Before you add John Bolton’s indictment to the growing pile of specious prosecutions of Donald Trump’s enemies, stop and read the Justice Department’s allegations that the former national security adviser systematically shared classified information with people who weren’t authorized to read it, all in the service of writing a tell-all book. The 18-count criminal indictment, filed yesterday, was compiled by experienced prosecutors, not political lackeys.

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For the better part of 15 years, my colleague Spencer Kornhaber has been working in and around music-and-film coverage at The Atlantic, performing a service that was once, if not exactly universal, at least fairly common at newspapers and alt-weeklies across the country.

Updated with new questions at 4:05 p.m. ET on October 17, 2025.
Atlantic Trivia reaches Week 3, which is by definition the most trivial of all: The word trivia originally referred to places where three (tri-) roads (-via) met in a crossing. If those slouch Romans had been more industrious builders, we might be playing quintivia or even septivia today.

Thirty years ago, parents everywhere were compelled to weigh the pros and cons of allowing their kids to see Titanic. At the time, it was the biggest movie ever made, a historical epic (potentially educational) about mass death (possibly traumatizing) with a romantic plotline that was maybe too exciting (you know what I mean!).