This month marked the end of my 16-year career with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. Like thousands of other federal workers, I was dismissed without warning or explanation. In my time at USAID, I led response teams helping people during wars and after natural disasters around the world, on ...Read more

Count me in the ranks of those who have quit Tesla.

Three years ago my wife and I bought a Model Y, Tesla’s small SUV. I was particularly intrigued by a car that ran on electricity, not gas. Living in Fresno, California, in one of the nation’s most polluted air basins, meant that driving an EV, with its zero emissions, would be my small ...Read more

One of my favorite stories is "The Butterfly and the Tank," a powerful novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway. First published in Esquire magazine in November 1938, the piece is based on Hemingway’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War.

In it, Hemingway exposes a chilling truth about human nature: the greatest ...Read more

The world found out shortly after noon eastern time on March 24 that the United States’ March 15 bombing of Houthi targets across Yemen had been discussed just before it happened on the private messaging platform Signal among U.S. national security officials. Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist from The Atlantic magazine, had been inadvertently ...Read more

Freedom of speech. Due process under the law.

They sound good, don’t they?

They’re the twin pillars of a free society and a free university. And they’re both under assault from President Donald Trump’s administration.

The only way for universities to fight back is to join hands around these principles. Everything else is just a ...Read more

Washington is aflutter with the latest Trump “gotcha,” this one involving the revelation that White House officials mistakenly included a journalist on a group chat about potential American airstrikes against rebels in Yemen. It’s not a good look for the administration, but it also doesn’t appear to be the massive scandal that Democrats ...Read more

The Defense Department has been roiled by the Donald Trump administration’s desire to root out diversity, equity and inclusion programs his administration believes are divisive and unfair. This has manifested itself in closing offices focused on DEI; rescinding a variety of internal directives; restoring the names of military bases originally ...Read more

Imagine you’re a senior manager for a company. You and other members of your corporate braintrust, working in different locations, hop on a group text to discuss strategic plans relating to your chief competitor, but you mistakenly add to the group a business reporter with whom you’ve spoken in the past. That reporter then blows the cover on...Read more

President Donald Trump’s recent executive order laying out a plan for dismantling the federal Department of Education represents good news for families nationwide. As the mother of a child with special needs and a former member of the National Council on Disability, I can attest that the benefits will extend to children with disabilities as ...Read more

Everyone involved in the nation’s defense — from the newly enlisted up to and including the military’s top brass — should be incensed that members of the Trump administration carelessly discussed pending operations against the Houthi militia in Yemen over Signal, a commercial messaging app.

Such recklessness not only appears to violate ...Read more

The country should thank The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeff Goldberg, for showing that the entire top echelon of the Trump administration was reckless and careless in discussing secret classified military matters on the non-secure commercial messaging app Signal.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz made the blunder of including Goldberg in...Read more

Gavin Newsom has a new political podcast, in case you hadn't heard, and he's not the only one who's talking.

California's gallivanting governor has made national headlines and stirred no small amount of discussion among fellow Democrats by undertaking a series of cross-partisan conversations with the likes of MAGA megastars Charlie Kirk and ...Read more

Amid the Trump administration’s assault on higher education and academic freedom — shaking down institutions like Columbia, targeting pro-Palestinian scholars and students for deportation and dispatching chilling letters meant to silence dissent — last week brought an unexpected but welcome development: The University of California ...Read more

There could not be a worse time to implement a required national service for young people.

In a nation that has turned individual freedom into a fetish, such an idea would always be a hard sell. Now, with an autocratic president and his sidekick car salesman slashing federal jobs, it would be a disaster.

Forced service would further sap ...Read more

As someone who firmly believes in libertarian/conservative values and principles, I fully understand that compulsory national service could seem like an infringement upon one’s personal freedom. However, I still think it is worth exploring under specific guidelines.

When most people hear the term national service, they automatically think of ...Read more

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is under fire from progressives for not having a clear plan to fight President Donald Trump. He certainly deserves some criticism — but for an entirely different reason: He doesn’t have a clear plan to help Senate Democrats regain a majority.

For House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the path to a ...Read more

How do you say, “I am going to break Social Security” without actually saying “I am going to break Social Security”?

Donald Trump doesn’t have to have to say a thing. A leaked memo says it all.

Starting March 31, the Social Security Administration will shut off its phones to newly disabled claimants and new retirees, people trying ...Read more

A go-to argument of the modern breed of climate-change deniers is that carbon dioxide is good for plants and what’s good for plants is good for humans. Well, sure, a greener planet actually could be beneficial for humanity. But let's not ignore the many not so beneficial effects. Seasonal-allergy sufferers could give you at least one.

Hay ...Read more

In only a few weeks, the United States has walked away — or rather sprinted — from decades of global leadership. It’s unrealistic that another power will fully replace the role America has played in shaping global affairs, but some are navigating how to fill some gaps.

Europe and China both have incentives to step up, for different ...Read more

Since resuming office, President Donald Trump has not for one minute parted from his promise to leverage tariffs to ignite a new “golden age.” At times, he seems to be working continually to stimulate major trading partners into arrangements that make America great again.

However, anyone attempting to follow the bouncing tariff proposals ...Read more