Cheat Sheet
INSECURE
Trump Called Park Service About Crowd
Reportedly pressured director to release flattering photos.
ESPIONAGE SAGA
Russia Nabs 3rd ‘U.S. Spy’ in Cyber Case
Treason cases thought to be tied to U.S. hacking report.
DARTH BANNON
Bannon to Media: Keep Your Mouth Shut
Described the press as "the opposition party."
CONSUMERS PAY
Spicer: 20% Tax on Imports to Fund Wall
American consumers to fund border wall.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Trump's Refugee Ban Selective for Biz
Countries where he does business are reportedly excluded.
CAVING
Miami-Dade Mayor: No More ‘Sanctuary’
Trump’s executive order forces county to comply.
WELL THEN
Lewandowski Denies Serbia Lobbying Story
He was allegedly being brought to work for Serbian nationalists.
GLOBAL TERROR
Trump to Order Harder Fight Against ISIS
Plan may see American artillery and attack helicopters in Syria.
OBSCURED
NYC Judge: Put a Burqa on Undercover
After prosecutor requested court be cleared for her testimony.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Gorbachev Urges Trump to Stop Arms Race
Along with Putin.
Keep ReadingThe holy triumvirate of TGIT—‘Scandal,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ and ‘How to Get Away with Murder’—returned. And it was about damn time.
Shondaland Is Back to Take on Trumpism
Keep ReadingAfter splitting from Marla Maples, the Donald posed as his own publicist—John Miller—in order to spread falsehoods to the tabloids about various famous women’s interest in him.
Donald Trump’s Sad History with Madonna
Keep ReadingThe ‘Girls’ creator did not mince words when discussing Hollywood’s apparent forgiveness of Gibson. It’s another example of the industry’s double standard when it comes to men.
Lena Dunham Comes for Mel Gibson
Columnists
Sponsored Content
Politics
Trump: Dead Guys Stole My Popular Vote
Trump: Dead Guys Stole My Popular Vote
President Donald Trump Wednesday again tried to justify his 2.9 million popular vote loss in November by claiming that 3 to 5 million illegal votes were cast, without providing a single piece of evidence or data to support that claim.“You have peo...
Of course, he’d focus his investigation of the election he won on deep blue states.
Austrian Extremists Party at Trump Tower
Austrian Extremists Party at Trump Tower
Trump Tower was teeming with activity on Nov. 8 last year as the nation was preparing to vote the tower’s namesake into the Oval Office.In one particular apartment, near the penthouse where the new president-elect resided, a cohort of friends gath...
Their party was led by a Nazi officer. And now they’re celebrating an American strongman.
Reality, Rights Fade in Trump’s America
Reality, Rights Fade in Trump’s America
This week a commercial titled “Champion” made the rounds on cable news networks, proclaiming that President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, the embattled Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is “a civil rights champion” with “a lifetime of fig...
The president not only has the resources of the American government at his disposal, but also a coterie of billionaire buddies committed to disseminating ‘alternative facts’ on his b...
With Trump, GOP Warms to Torture Again
With Trump, GOP Warms to Torture Again
PHILADELPHIA—With all the talk of CIA black sites, enhanced interrogation techniques, and a Cheney defending it all, the Republican congressional retreat on Wednesday was a flashback to the bygone Bush administration era.“I’m in support of enhance...
At the Republican retreat on Wednesday, some Republicans seemed to be newly open to bringing back torture tactics banned by the Army Field Manual just last year.
Trump Turns Hate Into Policy
Trump Turns Hate Into Policy
Donald Trump is poised to turn his hate-filled and bigoted campaign rhetoric about Muslims into policy. The man who despicably declared that “Islam hates us,” lied that “thousands” of Muslims cheered in New Jersey on 9/11 and claimed despite facts...
Trump’s message is simple: Muslims are so inherently dangerous that they must be kept out of the country. Will his dark vision of America triumph?
Entertainment
Watch Live: The 2017 Winter X Games
Watch Live: The 2017 Winter X Games
Beginning on Thursday, January 26, the 2017 Winter X Games will feature death-defying contests like the SuperPipe, Big Air, and Slopestyle events. Taking place in Aspen, Colorado and featurings some of the biggest names in extreme sports, the Wint...
Beginning Thursday evening, sports’s biggest daredevils will take to the slopes for the 2017 Winter X Games. Here’s how to watch live.
The 86-Year-Old Breakout of Sundance
The 86-Year-Old Breakout of Sundance
PARK CITY, Utah – The It Girl of the Sundance Film Festival is reclined on a couch, finally taking a breath after a relentless day of being whisked around a snowier-than-usual Park City. Because of her performance opposite Jon Hamm and Geena Davis...
After six decades in showbiz—she made her film debut opposite James Dean—Lois Smith is finally getting her due as a grieving widow in the Sundance sci-fi drama ‘Marjorie Prime.’
For My Friend David, Who Died of AIDS
For My Friend David, Who Died of AIDS
If Nora Burns’s words sounded straightforward, upbeat even, the story they referred to was far more complex.“It’s about us, it’s about fun, it’s about New York—it’s about friendship,” Burns was saying, explaining her new one-woman show, David’s Fr...
Nora Burns has created a moving, funny show to remember her best friend David, who died of AIDS in 1993. She talks about their deep bond, grief, and how close he still feels.
Bee Tackles Trump’s ‘Surreal’ Inaugural
Bee Tackles Trump’s ‘Surreal’ Inaugural
Donald Trump’s inauguration may seem like it happened months ago at this point, but Wednesday night was Samantha Bee’s first opportunity to weigh in on the lightly-attended affair, and she was not going to pass it up.As Bee put it, America watched...
In the first ‘Full Frontal’ under President Trump, Samantha Bee comforted herself with the fact that he could only get 3 Doors Down to play his inauguration.
Jay Z on Protests: ‘We Are the Power’
Jay Z on Protests: ‘We Are the Power’
PARK CITY, Utah—“First I want everyone to take a deep breath, because that was a lot to take—to watch something like that and know it’s real life,” said Jay Z.The shell-shocked Sundance Film Festival audience had just witnessed to the first two ep...
The hip-hop legend sat down for a discussion about his new docuseries ‘TIME: The Kalief Browder Story,’ about the life of the wrongfully imprisoned teen.
Noah Mocks Trump’s Fox-Inspired Tweet
Noah Mocks Trump’s Fox-Inspired Tweet
Seemingly out of nowhere Tuesday night, President Donald Trump posted a tweet in which he threatened to “send in the Feds” to Chicago if authorities “don’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on.” But the “scariest” thing about Trump’s tweet, Daily S...
The ‘Daily Show’ host wants to know why President Trump is getting his policy ideas from ‘The O’Reilly Factor.’
‘The Assignment’ Stinks of Transphobia
‘The Assignment’ Stinks of Transphobia
The forthcoming thriller about a male hitman who is forced to undergo sex reassignment surgery is now on its third name. First, it was Tomboy, then it was (Re)Assignment, and now it’s just The Assignment.The third time is not the charm.The film’s ...
The trailer for the action movie, starring Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver, confirms that it sees a transgender person’s transition in purely physical terms—and as a lurid to...
World News
Why Boko Haram Is Blowing Up Babies
Why Boko Haram Is Blowing Up Babies
WARRI, Nigeria—What we call Boko Haram is a fractured, brutal, and deeply cynical collection of killers supposedly waging a religious war against the government of Nigeria. But as the government’s military offensive continues to deprive them of te...
It’s not enough to slaughter the innocents with explosives. The Nigerian terror group targets the vaccination campaigns that try to save them from disease.
CIA Targets Its Newest Asset: Trump
CIA Targets Its Newest Asset: Trump
After a brutal start, the CIA is set to mend fences and win over “Customer Number One,” President Donald Trump, putting aside his awkward address to the agency on Saturday and doing what they do best: recruit him to their way of thinking.“Congratu...
Langley is ready to woo the new president like a foreign leader. The key? Flattering his ego: ‘He is extremely insecure like an adolescent boy.’
Putin Is Killing Sex Workers
Putin Is Killing Sex Workers
When unconfirmed reports alleged that Donald J. Trump had once paid sex workers in Russia to urinate on a hotel bed that had been slept on by the Obamas, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded himself, half joking about an event he said he dou...
Russia not only fights against the best means to combat AIDS/HIV at home, it tries to impose its views abroad. Will Trump follow Putin’s lead on this, too?
Protectionist U.S.? Free-Market China?
Protectionist U.S.? Free-Market China?
PARIS—History will remember two images that symbolize the start of 2017: on one side, Donald J. Trump raising his fist the day of his inauguration in Washington, D.C.; on the other side, Chinese leader Xi Jinping smiling, and cheered by global bus...
As the new U.S. president kills the Trans-Pacific Partnership, China is repositioning itself, and may well come out ahead.
No Joint U.S.-Russian Airstrikes—Yet
No Joint U.S.-Russian Airstrikes—Yet
No, U.S. and Russian warplanes are not flying combat missions together over Syria. Yet.That startling claim, which spread across the U.S. news media on the afternoon of Jan. 23, 2017, began with a vague and misleading tweet by the Associated Press...
The Associated Press reported what it said was a Russian government announcement of a joint U.S.-Russian airstrike on Syria. The Pentagon says no way.
For Europe’s Right, Trump’s Triumphant
For Europe’s Right, Trump’s Triumphant
KOBLENZ, Germany—Last year, they were still dining together in secret.But on Saturday, one day after the world watched Donald Trump getting sworn in as president of the United States while pledging “America first,“ and as millions of women (and me...
The populist far right in Europe would like to believe Trump’s victory assures their own, and they came together to proclaim just that. But nothing’s quite that simple.
Daring DNA Hunt Cracked Cold Case
Daring DNA Hunt Cracked Cold Case
DENVER—On a cold Saturday morning in January 2002, a farm worker in northern France unloading dirty stable hay into a field noticed a tree stump that looked out of place. As he got closer, he realized that what he thought was a log was actually a ...
Thanks to American science and a determined French cop, a young woman whose burned corpse was found by a farmer 15 years ago may get justice.
U.S.
Dr. Gave Woman 300 Pills Before She Died
Dr. Gave Woman 300 Pills Before She Died
Despite admitting to prescribing unjustified pain medicine and committing more than 4,000 acts of Medicare fraud, Dr. Robert Ritchea was found fit to practice medicine.After imposing fines and a slap on the wrist in 2010, both the Georgia Composit...
Authorities stopped Dr. Robert Ritchea after he admitted to 4,000 acts of fraud, but then they reinstated him. Now the DEA has him in its sights.
Freed by Obama, ‘Executed’ by Masked Men
Freed by Obama, ‘Executed’ by Masked Men
Two months after President Obama freed him from prison, two masked gunmen took his life. Damarlon Thomas was serving time for drug distribution when this president commuted his and 78 others’ sentences in November. Thomas, a former gang member, ...
The president commuted Damarlon Thomas’s 19-year sentence for cocaine and with two months left, gunmen put a hit on him.
The Sheriff Who Coached Jeff Bridges
The Sheriff Who Coached Jeff Bridges
“When someone sees a Texas lawman, the first thing you notice is the hat,” Sheriff Parnell McNamara told Jeff Bridges over the phone.McNamara, a Waco native, owns more than 50 cowboy hats—some Stetsons, some bespoke, some worn, some new.“You don’t...
Parnell McNamara inspired the Oscar-nominated role in Hell or High Water, and his real-life exploits hunting down “weird sickos” could be their own movie.
Lawsuit: Fed Took Bribes to Kill Diner
Lawsuit: Fed Took Bribes to Kill Diner
A Las Vegas restaurant allegedly bribed a crooked federal agent to raid their rival restaurant, the alleged victims claim.Club Yamang and Club Sonagi were two Korean supper clubs, which offered food and music, often accompanied by attractive hoste...
An ICE agent who’s already pleaded guilty to taking bribes allegedly drove a Korean supper club out of business in exchange for free food and drinks from a rival joint.
Can the Michelin Model Fix Fake News?
Can the Michelin Model Fix Fake News?
Americans today have an addiction—and they're addicted to social media delivered news, much of which is biased, misrepresents facts, or is completely fabricated. Today, the spread of fake news poses a health risk to Western democracies. Junk...
Let’s start a Consumer Reports for news. People still buy the low-rated junk in Consumer Reports—but at least they know what they’re getting into.
Tech
Don’t Like Technology? It Likes You
Don’t Like Technology? It Likes You
In Greek mythology, Prometheus taught man how to farm. But when he gave man fire, the gods felt he had gone too far. And so as punishment, Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock where every day an eagle would come and eat his liver, which would regrow ...
Science and the digital world have overhauled our world, but the stakes just got higher: Now technology wants to remake you, using everything from the internet to stem cells.
The Science of Transgender Brains
The Science of Transgender Brains
What does gender dysphoria feel like?For those who are not transgender themselves—and, in the United States, that’s all but 1.4 million of us—the idea of our actual gender not matching the one we were assigned at birth might seem foreign or, worse...
A study has shown that trans people may sense touch differently than cisgender people according to particular body parts. We should be curious, but also careful, what we extrapolate ...
All The People Who Betrayed Manning
All The People Who Betrayed Manning
I first heard the name Bradley Manning at a cheap Japanese restaurant near Sacramento, California, sitting across from the ex-hacker who’d just turned the soldier in.It was May 2010, and I was following up on a remarkable story I’d heard in crypti...
Over and over, the young private who exposed so much of the U.S. government’s inner workings trusted people—only to get knifed.
Missile Launchers Now at Dakota Pipeline
Missile Launchers Now at Dakota Pipeline
The North Dakota Army National Guard has deployed two surface-to-air missile-launchers near a critical work site for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, or DAPL.Protestors spotted one of the Avenger missile systems on Jan. 16 and posted phot...
The Avenger missile launcher is foremost a weapon of war. What is it doing at the site of a peaceful protest?
Russians ‘Hack Sherlock’ in War on BBC
Russians ‘Hack Sherlock’ in War on BBC
In a mystery worthy of the master detective himself, the BBC is investigating the possibility that the final episode of its hit sleuth series Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, was illegally leaked online by a state-sponso...
Reports are circulating that state-sponsored agents circulated a Russian-language copy of the finale of the hit BBC series as part of Moscow’s war with the British broadcaster.
Hackers Blow NSA Secrets in Last ‘F-You’
Hackers Blow NSA Secrets in Last ‘F-You’
A mysterious hacking group has been bedeviling the U.S. intelligence community for months, releasing a tranche of secret National Security Agency hacking tools to the public while offering to sell even more for the right price. Now with barely a w...
A gang of elite hackers, believed by many to be Russian, say they’re quitting—just as Donald Trump gets ready to enter the Oval Office.
What Could Trump Really Do to Vaccines?
What Could Trump Really Do to Vaccines?
Members of anti-vaccine fringe groups have taken Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent meeting with President-elect Donald Trump as a sign that his promise to “Drain the Swamp” will extend to the country’s immunization policy-makers.But it is unclear jus...
Are the president-elect’s meetings with anti-vaxxers a signal he’s going to change immunization policy? And does he have the power to do so?
Arts + Culture
For My Friend David, Who Died of AIDS
For My Friend David, Who Died of AIDS
If Nora Burns’s words sounded straightforward, upbeat even, the story they referred to was far more complex.“It’s about us, it’s about fun, it’s about New York—it’s about friendship,” Burns was saying, explaining her new one-woman show, David’s Fr...
Nora Burns has created a moving, funny show to remember her best friend David, who died of AIDS in 1993. She talks about their deep bond, grief, and how close he still feels.
How Mary Tyler Moore Changed America
How Mary Tyler Moore Changed America
When Mary Richards threw that hat up in the air at the end of the credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, it was both a vision of an independent person’s joy and a declaration of specifically female independence and autonomy.That image of the hat-th...
‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ was much more than a TV show. On screen and off, it changed how American women saw themselves, and how men saw them.
The High-Stakes Transgender Name Game
The High-Stakes Transgender Name Game
For most job applicants, the question “Have you ever been known by any other name?” is not a stumbling block.If you have a maiden name—or if you simply hated your first name and changed it from Jacqueline to Jessica—it’s unlikely that disclosing a...
‘Have you ever been known by any other name’ is a far from innocuous question for transgender people, who may immediately out themselves with an honest answer.
Journalists Jailed After Trump Riot
Journalists Jailed After Trump Riot
Is the new Zeitgeist of Trumpism threatening the First Amendment?One can only hope not.But at least six reporters are facing felony rioting charges arising from their coverage of violent demonstrations in Washington, D.C., last Friday during journ...
At least six reporters are facing felony rioting charges arising from their coverage of violent demonstrations in Washington, D.C., last Friday.
Actors ‘Threatened’ By Kate's Star Power
Actors ‘Threatened’ By Kate's Star Power
Film stars really are delicate, sensitive souls, aren't they? But did Bafta—the British equivalent of the Academy—really ask Kate Middleton to stay away from their film and TV awards this year for fear of overshadowing the little flowers?Tha...
Who would want Kate Middleton sucking up all the flashbulbs on their big promo night? Not Britain's film stars, according to a new report today.
Triumph Poops on Trump’s Inauguration
Triumph Poops on Trump’s Inauguration
Robert Smigel’s Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was one of 2016’s most vital political satirists, hitting the campaign trail early in the primaries and sticking with it all the way through the conventions over the summer. So it was only fitting that ...
Conan O’Brien sent Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to Trump’s inauguration and he came back with gold.
How August Wilson Heard Black America
How August Wilson Heard Black America
A group of African-American men sit around a grungy cab office. They are mostly drivers, but there are a few regular customers too. Then—soon to appear through its doors—there’s Booster (Brandon J. Dirden), the son of the cab firm’s owner, Becker ...
The brilliant MTC production of Wilson’s ‘Jitney’ is so good you want to stay in the company of the actors for as long as possible.
Arts + Culture