The Week (US)

The guitarist who kept the Dead alive

Bob Weir was the quiet linchpin of the Grateful Dead. Though he was uninterested in competing with the mythical presence of Jerry Garcia, saying fans’ deification had ultimately killed the frontman, Weir was a fan favorite: the good-looking one in the...

Imperial ambitions

What happened Confusion reigned in Venezuela this week after the U.S. toppled President Nicolás Maduro in a lightning military operation, with President Trump saying the U.S. would now “run” the country while the remaining leaders of the autocratic...

Editor’s letter

T he White House traditionally has a lovely Nativity scene as part of its seasonal decor. Made in Italy of painted terra-cotta and carved wood, the 18th-century Neapolitan crèche shows angels hovering over Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, with the barn...

End of the alliance?

“America no longer sees itself as the leader of the free world,” said Max Boot in The Washington Post. That’s the central message of the Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy, released last week. The 33-page document lets Russia off the...

War crime?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has earned the unique distinction of being “a war criminal— without a war,” said George F. Will in The Washington Post. On Sept. 2, as the U.S. military surveilled an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean, the...

A gift to Russia?

What happened After eliminating multiple Russian demands from a peace plan backed by President Trump, U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators agreed this week in Geneva on the framework for a deal to end the Ukraine war—but Russia’s acceptance appeared...

A MAGA schism

What happened Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill directing the Justice Department to release its files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein this week, a stunning turnabout for an effort that President Trump and Republican leaders spent months trying...

Mainstreaming hate

The poison of antisemitism is “growing on the new right,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, and it’s “spreading wider and faster than we thought.” Last week, Tucker Carlson hosted “Hitler fanboy” Nick Fuentes on his podcast for a “chummy”...

Ballroom blitz

“For a decade, President Donald Trump has bulldozed through the norms that govern the presidency,” said Laura Barrón-López in MSNBC.com. “That metaphor turned literal” last week when excavators, at Trump’s direction, tore down the East Wing of the...

Gunboat diplomacy

What happened Evidence mounted this week that the Trump administration was seeking regime change in Venezuela, as a U.S. counter-narcotics campaign that began with military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats shifted toward the ouster of...

Home at last

What happened A triumphant President Trump this week celebrated a hard-won ceasefire in Gaza that secured the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, even as doubts remained that peace between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group would...

Under siege

What happened President Trump this week called for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be jailed for “failing to protect ICE officers,” as he deployed troops to the Chicago area and federal agents there used increasingly...

Enemies list

With the prosecution of James Comey, “our country has entered a grave new period of injustice,” said The New York Times in an editorial. Lindsey Halligan, a former personal lawyer for President Trump newly elevated to U.S. attorney in Virginia,...

A nation torn

What happened Utah prosecutors said this week they would seek the death penalty for the accused assassin of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying the 22-year-old suspect told his transgender partner that he’d murdered the right-wing star because...

Wartime president

What happened The Trump administration launched its longpromised immigration crackdown in Chicago this week, as President Trump threatened the city with “war” and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ramped up operations in other Democratic-run...

Occupy Chicago

What happened Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker assailed President Trump for his threat to send the National Guard into Chicago this week, calling it an illegal and “un-American” scheme hatched by a “wannabe dictator.” Trump cited Chicago, New York, and...

Mission impossible

What happened A meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and a White House summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and seven European leaders left Trump seemingly no closer to a deal to end the Ukraine...

Going backward

In hindsight, handing the reins of American public health to a “wholly unqualified antivaccine nutter” may have been a mistake, said Rex Huppke in USA Today. Taking a break from his campaigns to promote the recuperative powers of sunshine, raw milk,...

Starving in Gaza

What happened As evidence mounted of widespread famine conditions in Gaza, President Trump this week demanded that Israel allow “every ounce of food” into the enclave, blaming Israel’s blockade for triggering “real starvation.” Israel blocked all...

Epstein’s ghost

What happened As bipartisan pressure built on the Trump administration to release files on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, House Speaker Mike Johnson this week abruptly ended the legislative session and sent members home a few days early to avoid...

A disastrous response

What happened As recovery workers continued scouring a devastated Guadalupe River valley in central Texas for bodies, the Trump administration denied reports that its steep cost-cutting measures hampered the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s...

American gulags

Let’s call “Alligator Alcatraz” what it really is—“an American concentration camp,” said Jennifer Schulze. The new migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades for 5,000 migrants is an open-air jail of large tents that house cages and bunk beds,...

Mission accomplished?

What happened President Trump reacted with rage this week after a preliminary intelligence assessment concluded that the U.S. military strikes he ordered on Iran had not “obliterated” the country’s nuclear program, as he’d claimed, and likely set it...

Iran on the brink

What happened President Donald Trump signaled this week that the U.S. could join Israel’s assault on Iranian nuclear and military sites, calling for the Islamic Republic’s “unconditional surrender” and declaring that his “patience was wearing thin.”...

Show of force

What happened California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned this week that “democracy is under assault” after President Trump sent 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE protests—and described the deployment as a preview of...

Crashing out

Elon Musk says it was X AE A-Xii, his 5-yearold son, who gave him the black eye he sported during last week’s farewell Oval Office meeting with President Trump. But that bruise was “an unmistakable metaphor for his tumultuous government service,” said...

Primed to explode

The House hands the Senate a ‘big, beautiful’ debt bomb

Donald of Arabia

President Trump has laid out his vision for the Middle East, said Eli Lake in The Free Press, and it marks a “sea change” for U.S. foreign policy. In a speech in Saudi Arabia last week, Trump explained that America “is no longer trying to remake the...

An American pope

Growing up, “the only white smoke young Robert Prevost ever saw” likely billowed from steelworks chimneys on Chicago’s South Side, said Thomas Dyja in The Observer (U.K.). Last week, white smoke from the Vatican signaled that he’d been elected the...

Stealing Christmas

There may not be much under the tree for America’s children this Christmas, said Chris Cillizza in his Substack newsletter, but “Donald Trump just handed Democrats a huge gift.” In last week’s televised Cabinet meeting, the president shrugged off...

Getting results?

President Trump launched his second term in January “with a promise to deliver a new ‘golden age’ to Americans,” said James Politi and Myles McCormick in the Financial Times. But as he marked his 100th day in office this week, a flurry of new polls...

To the barricades

After one American institution after another caved to “the irrational demands of a lunatic administration,” one of them finally “stood up and said no,” said Charles P. Pierce in Esquire. The Trump administration recently sent Harvard University a list...

Ultimate trade war

What happened The tariff war between the U.S. and China intensified this week as both sides dug in amid rising fears of a global recession. The Trump administration’s levies on Chinese imports hit a staggering 145 percent, and China countered with...

Playing with fire

What happened President Trump abruptly halted his plan to slap so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries this week, a stunning turnaround that came just 13 hours after the levies went into effect. Trump upended global trade last week by...

Driving up prices

What happened Declaring “Liberation Day” from decades of free-trade policies that have allowed the U.S. to be “plundered” by other nations, President Trump this week upended the global trading system by imposing sweeping tariffs on every U.S. trading...

Breaking the law?

What happened The Trump administration ramped up its hardline immigration strategy this week, scrapping a Biden-era program that let a half-million Latin Americans and Haitians enter the U.S. legally and moving to use federal tax data to identify and...

Which way?

“Chuck Schumer committed the grave sin of accepting reality,” said Brendan Buck in The New York Times. “And his party is now furious.” The Senate minority leader is facing his Democratic colleagues’ ire after he and nine establishment colleagues voted...

Wheel of misfortune

What happened President Trump this week imposed sweeping 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported into the U.S., doubling down on trade policies that have shaken stock markets, alienated allies, and raised fears of an economic downturn....

Rescue mission

What happened President Trump this week suspended U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, just days after a contentious Oval Office meeting in which he publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for failing to...

A MAGA military

President Trump shredded “America’s soft power” by gutting USAID, said Max Boot in The Washington Post. “Now he seems bent on damaging U.S. hard power too.” Hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans last week to cut 5,400 civilian...

Tasting victory

What happened The Trump administration reversed three years of Western efforts to isolate Russia this week, negotiating directly with Vladimir Putin’s regime over the war in Ukraine and signaling that the U.S. would abandon its long-standing...

Collision course

What happened Legal experts warned that America was headed toward a constitutional crisis this week, as the Trump administration failed to comply with at least two court judgments and Vice President JD Vance argued that judges have no authority to...

SEEKING REVENGE AT THE FBI?

If Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing last week proved anything, said former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade in Time, it’s that he “cannot be trusted” to run the FBI. When pressed by Democrats in a confrontational confirmation hearing before the Senate...

Immigration offensive

What happened The U.S. detained thousands of undocumented migrants in cities nationwide this week, as President Trump ordered a dramatic ramp-up of raids and stepped up threats against countries that refuse to cooperate with deportation efforts....

Shock and awe

What happened Donald Trump vowed to end “America’s decline” this week, as he was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president and issued a blizzard of executive orders aimed at radically overhauling the federal government, rewarding his most loyal supporters,...

Agony in Los Angeles

What happened Los Angeles residents were sifting through the smoldering remains of their homes and businesses this week, as firefighters battled a pair of historic wildfires that have engulfed more than 40,000 acres of the metropolitan area, killing...

Alternate history

What happened Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory this week, four years to the day after a violent mob he’d instigated tore through the Capitol in an attempt to prevent certification of President Biden’s win. The calm...

Editor’s letter

Look, up in the sky! Drone sightings that began in New Jersey have now spread to several states (see Talking Points, p.19), commercial airplanes have had to change flight patterns, and at least one Air Force base had to briefly close its airspace. No...

After Assad

What happened Deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow this week after a lightning rebel advance ended his family’s bloody half-century rule in just two weeks of fighting. Cities fell in quick succession—Aleppo, then Hama, then Homs—as...

A BROKEN PARDON PROMISE

Losing ground

What happened Russian forces advanced in Ukraine this week at the fastest pace yet in the war, taking 90 square miles of territory, battering Kyiv with drones, and hitting central Dnipro with an experimental ballistic missile. In a bellicose speech,...

Wrecking crew

What happened Donald Trump’s nomination of accused sex trafficker Matt Gaetz for attorney general faced a rocky path this week, with his confirmation shaping up to be a test of whether Senate Republicans are willing to defy the president-elect. Trump...

After the beating

As Democrats “sift through the wreckage of their shattered coalition,” one question should jump out at them, said Ruy Teixeira in The Liberal Patriot: “Who is the Democratic Party for, exactly?” It was no surprise last week that Donald Trump made...

America’s choice

What happened Donald Trump was decisively elected the nation’s 47th president this week, reclaiming the White House despite multiple indictments, a criminal conviction, and accusations of authoritarianism. The stunning comeback by the 45th president...

Can she land it?

What happened Kamala Harris and Donald Trump this week made their final appeals to voters before the Nov. 5 election, with Harris calling Trump “a petty tyrant” who threatens democracy and Trump vowing to “liberate” America from “a migrant invasion”...

Battle of the sexes

It’s “boys vs. girls” this Election Day, said Rachel Janfaza in The Free Press. The gender gap has grown into a gaping chasm, with pollsters predicting the largest difference in voting preference between men and women in modern history. Polls have...

Conjuring demons

What happened With three weeks to go until Election Day, Donald Trump took a turn toward overt authoritarianism this week, escalating his anti-immigrant rhetoric, branding his political opponents as “evil,” and saying federal troops should be deployed...

Abortion activist?

“Just how stupid does Melania Trump think we are?” asked Moira Donegan in The Guardian. In a new memoir, the former first lady proclaims herself a staunch supporter of abortion rights. It is “imperative” that women have the right to choose whether to...

Targeting terror

What happened The Middle East stood on the brink of allout war this week, after Israel killed the leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, and Iran in turn hit Israel with a barrage of...

A MAGA fiasco

“If you want to understand why Republicans keep losing elections,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, the case of Mark Robinson is “illustrative.” Before last week, the vitriolic Trump-endorsed lieutenant governor of North Carolina was...

Hitting Russia

The U.S. seems determined to keep “Ukraine fighting with its hands tied,” said The Economist. When President Biden met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House last week, many in Ukraine and Europe hoped Starmer would secure...

The new brand

“Not bad,” Madam Vice President, said William Kristol in The Bulwark. “Pretty damn impressive, in fact.” Kamala Harris wrapped up last week’s Democratic National Convention with a stirring address that established her as a vigorous, centrist, and...

Wave rider

What happened Democrats this week hailed Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate of change and optimism at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, an event that showcased the party’s dramatic surge in energy since President Biden withdrew...

A good catch?

Tim Walz was a surprise pick to be Kamala Harris’ running mate, said Lisa Lerer in The New York Times. The governor of deep-blue Minnesota, Walz didn’t bring “the clear electoral benefits” of swing-state contenders such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh...