Thirteen months was all it took to break the Kennedy Center. The news of Ric Grenell’s exit—or, his “plans to transition out of his role,” as Axios put it when breaking the story yesterday—suggests the end of a high period in which the Kennedy Center has continually pissed people off, and the beginning of one in which fewer and fewer people even notice it.
One clue to this new direction can be found in Grenell’s apparent replacement.
Marco Mantovani / Getty
Gold medalists Joshua Sweeney, Oksana Masters, Sydney Peterson, Jake Adicoff, and Adicoff’s guide Reid Goble of Team USA pose for a photo on the podium during the medal ceremony for the para cross-country skiing mixed 4×2.5-kilometer relay on Day 8 of the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games, at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, played host this past week to another young married couple, who came to Gracie Mansion to break their Ramadan fast. A photograph taken of the dinner was softly lit and sweet, smiles all around.
The mayor posted the photo on social media the next day, along with a tribute to his guest, Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and anti-Israel activist who is fighting a deportation order.
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How does a person take smart risks? To start, mind the difference between recklessness and bravery, Arthur C. Brooks wrote in 2022. Free soloing a mountain with no climbing experience? Reckless. Confessing your love or going for that job you’ve always dreamed of? Brave.
Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here.
The conflict in Iran has begun to impact the global energy market. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss rising oil prices, potential shortages, and more.
As the U.S.
Live Nation’s settlement with the Justice Department is a big step toward accountability—and cheaper ticket prices.
The McDonald’s CEO took the tiniest bite of their biggest burger—and the internet went wild.
Hillary Frey and Anna Szymanski join Emily Peck to unpack the wild ride that was ‘Industry’ season 4.
A week after the Supreme Court ruled Trump’s tariff unconstitutional , no one really knows how or if tariff refunds will happen.
A conference in Washington this week showcases mainstream and alternative health practices, a teen beauty queen and scientists.
Clinics are pleading with Congress and HHS for answers amid “radio silence” about the imminent expiration of Title X funding.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said in September he was changing leucovorin’s label because it could help “hundreds of thousands” of children with the neurological condition.
Democrats hope the Trump administration’s recent pesticide move will sway voters in their direction.
Outward’s hosts sit down with the host and co-creator of When We All Get to Heaven.
The neighborhood changes, the church moves, people forget and remember “the AIDS years,” but AIDS isn’t over.
The AIDS cocktail opens new possibilities. And MCC San Francisco tries to use the experience of AIDS to make bigger social change.
The church’s minister gets sick and everyone knows it.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
President Donald Trump has taken one risk after another that could have destabilized the American economy. Iran is the latest crisis to test U.S. economic resilience.
The president stopped in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s old district to defend his economic record.
A brief swing through the farm state underscored administration fears about the midterms.
Sixty-one percent of voters told a CNN poll released Friday that they disapprove of the way Trump is handling the economy.
Democracy Now! recently sat down with Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International and a former United Nations special rapporteur, while she was in New York City to mark International Women’s Day and attend the U.N.’s annual conference on women’s rights. Callamard responded to the assassination of Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed, U.S. sanctions against U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and the rise of Christian nationalism under the Trump administration.
Current grants run out on April 1.
The run-up to the Academy Awards is a fun, ridiculous, and loopy monthslong stretch. It also encourages something vital to Hollywood’s artistic ecosystem: Movie studios, in the hopes of achieving Oscar glory, put money toward more stylistically challenging projects, rather than consistently aiming for the broadest common box-office denominator.
During the 14 months of Kristi Noem’s tenure at the Department of Homeland Security, I regularly heard from staffers—career law-enforcement officers and political appointees alike—who were desperate for a return to institutional normalcy. Their concerns weren’t ideological. They felt, instead, that Noem was running the department and its law-enforcement agencies as an attention-grabbing spectacle, undermining their mission.
Consider Noem’s appearance at a Salvadoran megaprison.
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Let’s get this out of the way: Rumors of a major MAGA schism have been greatly exaggerated.
Look at a list of the highest-grossing actors of all time, and you’ll see a lot of familiar names. The group includes franchise-hopping performers such as Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Zoe Saldaña; legacy A-listers such as Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks; and one 74-year-old Swede who has built a bustling, storied career doing a little bit of everything.
