The Presidential Transition Meets Murphy’s Law

One senior official is charged with ensuring a peaceful transfer of power when there is an apparent election winner. The Trump appointee is jeopardizing all that.

November 13, 2020

Democracy’s Afterlife

Trump, the GOP, and the rise of zombie politics.

December 3, 2020 issue

How Trump Lost

If he’d governed as he ran in 2016, as an economic populist, he would likely have been reelected. Instead, he reverted to the same old Republican playbook.

November 7, 2020

How Trump Won

He failed as an autocrat, despite opponents’ overblown fears, but succeeded in breaking the neoliberal consensus of the Beltway. We ignore that at our peril.

November 9, 2020

In Uganda, Another Museveni Crackdown

As an election approaches, opposition to the strongman’s long, brutal rule is gathering—but it has to reckon with his security state and its international enablers.

November 25, 2020

Death on the Via Dolorosa

The police shooting of an unarmed autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem this summer provoked brief outrage, but little sign of a lasting movement for change in Israel.

November 23, 2020

The Powerful Reticence of Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Rather than presenting himself overtly as a gay artist in the age of AIDS, he preferred to work as a secret agent in the house of culture.

November 22, 2020

The Case for Prosecuting Trump

Putting the former president on criminal trial carries big political risks. But to let this lawless leader off scot-free may be more dangerous still.

November 20, 2020

Georgia On My Mind

The suburbs of Atlanta, where I grew up in an era still scarred by segregation, have transformed in ways that helped deliver Joe Biden the presidency. But some things never change.

November 19, 2020

An Archaeology of Resistance

An army of unqualified historians is toiling today, erasing antifascist history and legitimizing revisionist versions.

November 16, 2020

Holding the Fraudster-in-Chief to Account

“To my mind, the Justice Department as an institution is in its worst state in decades,” says the former federal prosecutor.

November 21, 2020

On the Far Right and Policing in America

“There is an appetite for accountability reporting that is a direct result of the change in public attitude.”

November 14, 2020

Framing Life in a Conflict Zone

“I miss the warmth and kindness of the people in Gaza,” says the young Palestinian photojournalist, now living in exile.

November 7, 2020

From Tammany to Trumpery

The WNYC journalist and host of the Trump, Inc. podcast on how a corrupt oligarchy has taken hold in America.

October 5, 2020

How China Beat Its Covid Crisis

China’s bureaucracy controlled the pandemic. But some Chinese see flaws in the authoritarian state.

November 5, 2020 issue

Will Covid Change Italy?

September 24, 2020 issue

France: After Lockdown, the Street

Over the course of a long, strange April—during which France recorded nearly 20,000 Covid-19 deaths—something had shifted.

July 23, 2020 issue