If you watched James Comey’s sensational testimony on Capitol Hill Monday—or read about it in the ensuing avalanche of coverage from mainstream media organizations—you saw something extraordinary take place: For the first time, the FBI director publicly confirmed that the Justice Department is…

Archie was a primer on an existence that was insistently wholesome, perpetually teen-aged. ILLUSTRATION BY OLIVER MUNDAY For the week of July 4th, we asked writers to describe a person, object, or experience that they think captures a distinctly American spirit. There were hundreds of Archie Comics…

Washington hasn’t seen the likes of the F.B.I. director James Comey’s hearing before the House Intelligence Committee in many a day—if, indeed, there has ever been anything like it. PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK PETERSON / REDUX / THE NEW YORKER Just before 3:20 on Monday afternoon, Devin Nunes, the Republican…

Image courtesy of YouTube's Creators program. YouTube's Restricted Mode is an option for parents, schools, and others with young internet users to limit access to controlled portions of the site, but it is now blocking makeup tutorials for trans youth, videos of same-sex couples reading their…

LONDON — The British government said on Monday that it intended to formally notify the European Union of its intention to leave the bloc on March 29, putting the country on track to complete a withdrawal by early 2019. David Davis, the cabinet minister responsible for negotiating the withdrawal,…

A few years ago, my husband and I ran into a mutual acquaintance at a restaurant. This young man – a person who would surely identify as progressive – spent the entirety our interaction completely ignoring me. He spoke only to my husband; he wouldn’t even look at me when I asked a direct question.…

No revelations were expected from Rex Tillerson’s first trip to China as U.S. Secretary of State; he invited only one journalist to accompany him, and seemed determined that his visit make no news. He nearly succeeded — but his repeated use of Chinese phrases earlier rejected by the Obama…

Share Cage runs off with Laura Dern while doing his best Elvis impression. “Did I ever tell ya that this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom?” I don’t remember the first time I saw every Nicolas Cage movie I’ve seen but the ones I do remember I’ll…

BERLIN — A strong relationship with the United States is a bedrock of German foreign policy, so when Chancellor Angela Merkel met President Trump on Friday, German journalists and analysts scrutinized their body language and the tone of their remarks for clues about how they might work together.…

RIGHT next to Travis Funeral Home & Cremation Services, a dignified-looking canopied establishment offering funerals for $3,995, sits Chuck’s Gun Shop, a retailer of shotguns, rifles, pistols and semi-automatic guns, as well as ammunition, knives and holsters. The store in Riverdale, a suburb of…

Jimmy Breslin, the New York City newspaper columnist and best-selling author who leveled the powerful and elevated the powerless for more than 50 years with brick-hard words and a jagged-glass wit, died on Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 88 and, until very recently, was still pushing…

Dan Clowes, the renowned cartoonist behind the comic-book series “Eightball” and graphic novels such as “Ice Haven,” has a knack for creating characters that jump off the page and onto the movie screen. After “Ghost World” and “Art School Confidential,” his latest character to make the transition is…

The same game can be different things to different people, with gender, history, age, cultural background and political beliefs working to influence and funnel its messages and meanings for every unique player. Games can provide us with many things: entertainment, escapism, an arena for learning and…

Staffers are leaving their phones at home, using secret apps and monitoring each other’s social media. Many White House aides are using encrypted apps or leaving their personal cellphones at home in case their bosses initiate phone checks of the sort that press secretary Sean Spicer used last month…

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the worldwide web.Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian T oday marks 28 years since I submitted my original proposal for the worldwide web. I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and…

By David Livingston/Getty Images Noël Wells opens her new film, Mr. Roosevelt , with a frenetic and unsuccessful audition that nonetheless highlights her uncanny knack for impressions. It was exactly that talent that landed her a spot on Saturday Night Live in 2013. But despite some solid sketch…

When Barack Obama revealed that his last phone call as President was to Angela Merkel, reaffirming their alliance and friendship of the last eight years, he wasn’t just saying goodbye. He was handing over his baton. The German Chancellor isn’t just the leader of Europe, she is now the de-facto…

Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock ’n’ roll’s potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday at his home near Wentzville, Mo. He was 90. The St. Charles…

Over the weekend, a photo of a young man in a suit “air humping” the “Fearless Girl” — a public art piece directly across from the iconic Charging Bull statue in Lower Manhattan — went viral. You may not have realized it — but the “Fearless Girl” statue was rocking a red, Moms Demand Action for Gun…

HONG KONG — Strangers ask him if he was wearing pants. His phone hasn’t stopped ringing. And, no, he was not abusing his daughter in trying to get her out of camera range during a live television interview. Robert E. Kelly, the so-called “BBC dad” whose young children wandered into the room while he…

An apartment building decorated with Turkish flags in Amsterdam. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks living in Europe to have more children to counter the West’s “injustices.” Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press Calling Turks the “future of Europe,” Turkey ’s president on Friday implored his…

Ghosts of the past, both literal and figurative, haunt “T2 Trainspotting,” Danny Boyle’s droll and wistful return to the Scottish reprobates who, 21 years ago in “Trainspotting,” made heroin addiction a blast and bodily waste a metaphor for squandered lives. Excremental flourishes notwithstanding,…

Two men square up. One is shirtless, encased in muscle. He hunches forward, his afro obscured yet impeccable, gleaming in the sun. The other rocks a crisp white t-shirt. A bleached blond cowlick spills down his forehead. Determined blue eyes sparkle underneath his black eyebrows. He glares at his…

I'm trying to quit getting high on people. It's really fucking hard. I'm a romantic and an addict. I crave eros, fantasy, and intrigue. I'm wired for longing. But I keep getting really sick. Longing-sick. When you keep getting sick, you start to get tired of it. Eventually, you might be like: This…

I n the plans that exist for the death of the Queen – and there are many versions, held by Buckingham Palace, the government and the BBC – most envisage that she will die after a short illness. Her family and doctors will be there. When the Queen Mother passed away on the afternoon of Easter…

In 2012, Kim Stanley Robinson published 2312 , imagining how the world and its neighbors might look in 300 years, loosely coupled with the seminal Red Mars books, a futuristically pastoral novel about the way that technology can celebrate the glories of nature; in 2015, Robinson followed it up with…

Ringer illustration It’s impossible to spoil last night’s Season 4 finale of The Americans — nothing that shocking and traumatic occurred, and anyway, if you’re a sackcloth-shoulder-pads-wearing devotee of FX’s Cold War superspy drama, you’ve doubtless already rewatched it twice already. But the…

(FX/Ringer illustration) “Are you having sex?” asks the undercover Russian spy of her sullen teenage daughter, as they stand in their closed suburban garage. The spy is holding a duct-taped throw pillow so the teenager can sullenly hammer at it with her fists. The unspoken answer is, Not yet, but…

During a New York Times Talk , Jon Stewart gave his most in-depth thoughts yet on a number of topics that his fans wanted him to comment on. The comedian and now-director Stewart weighed in on the division in the country brought on by the election, Donald Trump, the media, and how to move forward.…

Whether lambasting racial inequity with his trademark eccentricity, or putting on a Jheri curl wig for a now-legendary parody of Rick James, Dave Chappelle has long been considered one of the most exciting stand-ups in comedy. But he hasn’t issued a special or album since his infamous decision to…

(Ubisoft) I’ve done things in video games that I would never want to do in life. Just in the last year of my digital existence, I’ve committed innumerable acts of wanton murder ( The Division, Far Cry Primal ), ran my bayonet through the virtual guts of countless online schmucks ( Battlefield 1 ),…

opinion What happens when we lose American lives over a lie? opinion Justin Sullivan/Getty It’s hard to live with a leader you don’t trust. It makes you anxious. Makes you fearful. It’s not really a partisan issue. This president lies as constantly and as brazenly as a used car salesman trying to…

How do businesses let design inform or even lead their strategy? Should every company have their own chief design officer? And what role should design play in today’s way of leadership and organization? More than a dozen C-suite executives and founders gathered to address these questions at an…

This week’s Beauty and the Beast will feature Disney’s first openly gay character — but the excitement that followed director Bill Condon’s announcement quickly turned to frustration on the realization that this character would be Le Fou, Gaston’s bumbling sidekick. Many have asked for years that…

Loading License this image → Follow us on Facebook → Now interactive & filterable, with ten new MythConceptions added. Toggle each category on & off, or hit ‘reset’ for all. To reveal our latest finds, press ‘new’. Bag a copy of the book Knowledge is Beautiful for even more myths and misconceptions.…

Getty The Kremlin wants to destroy the trans-Atlantic alliance. Does Trump want to save it? When Angela Merkel meets with Donald Trump on Friday, she won’t just be representing Germany. She’ll be bringing all the hopes and anxieties of an anxious continent—one whose fears have been stoked by the…

Brian Rea More than 20 years ago, the psychologist Arthur Aron succeeded in making two strangers fall in love in his laboratory. Last summer, I applied his technique in my own life, which is how I found myself standing on a bridge at midnight, staring into a man’s eyes for exactly four minutes. Let…