An employee enters the Anthropic office in San Francisco, June 7, 2023. A panel of federal judges on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, denied a motion from Anthropic to stop the Department of Defense from labeling it a security risk, a setback for the artificial intelligence company in its battle with the Trump administration over how AI should be used in warfare. (Marissa Leshnov/The New York Times) By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Normally right now I would be writing about the geopolitical i

The SLS rocket takes off to begin the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 1, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times) By ROSS DOUTHAT I am a firm nonbeliever when it comes to the cult of John F. Kennedy, but like an atheist admiring the King James Bible, even I can appreciate some of the Kennedy scriptures. So as our latest lunar mission circles back to Earth, I found myself revisiting the speech at Rice University that launched us

Republican lawmakers, Cabinet members and senior advisers to President Donald Trump applaud during hiss State of the Union address, in the House of Representatives Chamber at the Capitol building in Washington, Feb. 24, 2026. (Damon Winter/The New York Times) By ROSS DOUTHAT Kristi Noem is gone. Pam Bondi is out. If there’s going to be a fall guy for our ill-starred regime-change operation in Iran, it’s likely to be Pete Hegseth, whose prewar overconfidence is being highlight

christianity.com By DAVID FRENCH I grew up in a strict, fundamentalist Christian tradition. Most churches in my denomination didn’t celebrate Christmas and Easter (though that is now changing) because they were deemed pagan vestiges that had been arbitrarily Christianized by the apostate Catholic Church. My family embraced those holidays, but my church did not — so much so that at church we’d sometimes defiantly sing Christmas carols out of season, just to demonstrate our t

A monitor displays President Donald Trump as he delivers a message on the war in Iran in Washington, April 1, 2026. In a functioning American democracy, the president would deliver an Oval Office address at the start of a new military conflict. Donald Trump, however, decided to wait until a month into his war with Iran to give a speech about it to a skeptical public. (Jason Hendardy/The New York Times) By MICHELLE GOLDBERG In a functioning American democracy, the president wo

President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. President Trump declared on Tuesday that he had already achieved one of the primary objectives of his attack on Iran, the elimination of its ability to build a nuclear weapon. But there is no evidence that the United States or Israel has removed or destroyed the country’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade fuel. (Doug

By DAVID FRENCH I am alarmed by the negative influence of smartphones and social media on children. All of us should be. I am also worried that in our zeal to protect children from those negative influences that we will violate the Constitution and undermine free speech. And that’s where things get tricky. Last week, juries in two different states delivered multimillion-dollar verdicts against Big Tech. A New Mexico jury handed down a $375 million verdict in a case brought by

U.S. Army personnel during the U.S. Army’s 250th Anniversary Parade along the National Mall in Washington, June 14, 2025. (Mark Peterson/The New York Times) By NICHOLAS KRISTOF I was a child during the Vietnam War, and it was impossible to miss anti-war protests. I remember a common sentiment best expressed by Sen. George McGovern: “I’m tired of old men dreaming up wars for young men to fight.” And here we go again. President Donald Trump has reached a fork in his Iran war. O

“... if past generations could see how well this war has gone compared with the ones they were compelled to fight at a frightening cost, they would marvel at their posterity’s comparative good fortune,” Times columnist Bret Stephens writes. (Naila Ruechel/The New York Times) By BRET STEPHENS Most Americans probably don’t look back at March 2012 — if they remember it at all — and think of terrifyingly high gas prices. In the month when “The Hunger Games” ruled the box office a

“The ferry is not simply transportation for Vieques and Culebra. It is economic infrastructure,” contributing columnist Bob Gevinski writes. (Facebook via Vieques Culebra Ferry Watch) By ROBERT GEVINSKI Vieques and Culebra are often described as two of Puerto Rico’s most remarkable destinations. Their beaches are among the most beautiful in the Caribbean, and their character -- defined by nature, small businesses, and a slower pace of life -- continues to attract travelers lo