Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times) By JAMELLE BOUIE Americans of the revolutionary generation did not think of themselves as direct heirs to Western civilization, a term that wouldn’t come into vogue until the 20th century. If anything, they saw their new nation as a break with the European past — a new civilization rooted in popular sovereignt

“It tells you something notable about the world of the 2020s that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech to the Munich Security Conference earned a brief standing ovation,” writes New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. (Shannon Lin/The New York Times) By ROSS DOUTHAT It tells you something notable about the world of the 2020s that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech to the Munich Security Conference earned a brief standing ovation. Put the same speech in the mouth of any

In an undated image provided by National Nuclear Security Administration, a shaft at the Nevada test site being prepared for an underground nuclear test in the early 1990s. (National Nuclear Security Administration via The New York Times)  By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The world is entering a dangerous new nuclear age. This month, the New START treaty between the United States and Russia — the last major restraint on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals — expired. In its place,

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein wearing white t-shirts calling for a full release of the Epstein files raise their hands in response to a committee member’s question as Attorney General Pam Bondi, foreground right, testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. Bondi faced bipartisan skepticism over her handling, and perceived bungling, of the release of the investigative files related to the convicted sex offender Je

Anti-ICE protesters gather in dontown Minneapolis on Jan. 20, 2026. (Paola Chapdelaine/The New York Times) By JAMELLE BOUIE On Oct. 4, Marimar Martinez, a teacher’s assistant at a Montessori school, was driving in Chicago when she observed federal immigration agents on patrol. She had begun to honk her horn to warn her neighbors about their presence when she collided with a Border Patrol vehicle. Moments later, the agent in the vehicle, Charles Exum, fired multiple shots into

The aftermath of the ICE shooting that killed Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, 2026. (David Guttenfelder/The New York Times) By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The most basic responsibility of an officer of the law is to obey the law. The police and federal agents have enormous powers. They can arrest people, forcibly enter their homes and commit violence in the government’s name. If they violate the rules for using those powers, they can become abusers of the citizens they are entru

Pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, after his conviction on charges of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” at his home in Hong Kong, Aug. 15, 2020. The sentence for the media mogul, along with long prison terms for his editors, shows how Hong Kong enforces Xi Jinping’s red lines with a new severity. (Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times) By BRET STEPHENS I once sat with Jimmy Lai on a remote Hong Kong beach

A work glove left behind in dried mud in New York, July 9, 2019. (Damon Winter/The New York Times) By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM Most American dairy cows are milked by immigrants. On Dale Hemminger’s farm in upstate New York, the cows are milked by robots. When a cow wants to be milked, it walks up to a machine that cleans its udder, attaches cups to its teats, draws the milk and dispenses a treat. In a barn that Hemminger plans to open this year, other robots will roam the floor lik