5 stories from

Don’t give him the pretext he wants.

The “audacity of hope” presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement.

The president tried to give his billionaire benefactor a dignified exit. It didn’t work.

Using disorder he had helped manufacture, the chancellor seized control of Bavaria.

A lovely paradox of doing good in the world is that it does you good too.

He is taking self-enrichment to a scale never seen before in America.

“Who’s calling?” the president asks as he answers call after call from numbers he doesn’t know.

Memories of the past shape the choices of nations in the present.

The ancient-Greek commandment Know thyself turns out to be a great modern way to become happier, more empathetic, and more successful.

A lot happens under this administration, but a lot un-happens, too.

The Tesla innovator becomes the latest government employee to lose his job.

Inside the world of extreme-privacy consultants, who, for the right fee, will make you and your personal information very hard to find

The Trump administration has launched an attack on knowledge itself.

We live in a world of noisy narcissism, but you can escape the cacophony—and be happier.

A seemingly wonky debate about the “abundance agenda” is really about power.

Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.

A conversation with the president about executive power, Signalgate, and 24-karat gold

Germany’s far-right party hates immigration, and some of its leaders have a disturbing tendency to say things that sound Nazi-curious.

J. D. Vance could have brought the country’s conflicting strands together. Instead, he took a divisive path to the peak of power.

Here’s the answer to that—and what we can do about it.