Experts and ideologues broke literacy. Here’s how to fix it.

Restoring literacy demands we treat reading as more than a skill, but as a gateway to wisdom and understanding.

House GOP will not allow amendment vote to extend ObamaCare subsidies

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said there will not be an amendment vote on extending expiring ObamaCare enhanced subsidies as part of a House Republican health care bill this week, in a move that is infuriating moderate Republicans who had been pushing to go on the record about

Susie Wiles Freaks Out Over Her Own Quotes in Vanity Fair Interview

The Trump administration is rushing to do damage control after White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’s extremely candid interview with Vanity Fair . The interview, made up of various meetings between Wiles and Vanity Fair ’s Chris Whipple over the last year, contained multiple

‘Stop the music’ in Trump’s big ballroom

The National Historic Trust has filed a lawsuit against President Trump, the Department of Interior, the National Park Service, the General Services Administration, and their heads, to halt construction of the new ballroom in the White House, arguing that it was done illegally

US Jewish groups urge heightened security at public events after Hanukkah celebration targeted

Jewish groups in the United States are urging their counterparts to increase security precautions after a recent attack during a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. At least 15 people were killed and dozens were injured in the violent event overseas. “We

Susie Wiles Savages Trump and His Team in Unbelievable Interview

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has a lot to say about Donald Trump’s inner circle, and not much of it is flattering, if any. Wiles spoke to author Chris Whipple at different times throughout the first year of Trump’s second term as president, and her comments were

Erika Kirk: Meeting with Candace Owens 'very productive'

Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and right-wing podcaster Candace Owens emerged from their lengthy meeting Monday describing the conversation as “productive" and suggesting tensions had eased. “Had a very productive conversation with @RealCandaceO. More

Here’s What Kash Patel Is Doing After Bungling Brown Shooting Probe

FBI Director Kash Patel enraged users on X after he appeared in a teaser for Katie Miller’s podcast, as the manhunt for the mass shooter at Brown University was still underway. In a clip posted to X Monday evening, Patel sat laughing beside his country singer girlfriend Alexis

Watch live: House Democrats speak amid health care battle

House Democratic leaders will speak with reporters Tuesday morning as the battle to address rising health care premiums persists on Capitol Hill. Affordable Care Act subsidies, or enhanced tax credits that keep insurance costs lower for struggling Americans, are set to expire

Wiles slams Vanity Fair interview as 'disingenuously framed hit piece'

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles forcefully pushed back on Vanity Fair's framing of her interview with author Chris Whipple, calling Tuesday's sweeping article a “disingenuously framed hit piece” on her, President Trump, the Cabinet, and White House staff. “Significant

Susie Wiles Gives Away the Game on Trump’s “Drug Boat” Strikes

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles may have given up the game, admitting that the Trump administration’s strike on alleged “drug boats” in the Caribbean Sea is an effort to bring about regime change in Venezuela, rather than a war on drug-trafficking as the administration

Digital blackface: Racist AI content is fueling the SNAP debate

Minstrel shows died out, but we’re witnessing their second act in the digital realm.

Why Republicans Are Spreading Lies About the Mass Shooting at Brown

I was pushing my 4-year-old on the swing at our neighborhood playground in Providence, Rhode Island, on Saturday, less than a mile from my alma mater, Brown University, when my wife texted me about a mass shooting . I would eventually learn that two people had been killed and

‘Absolute bulls--t’: Endangered House Republican blasts leaders over impending Obamacare lapse

ISIS inspired Australia Hanukkah massacre: Police

Australian police said Tuesday the suspects in the deadly mass shooting at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach on Sunday were inspired by ISIS. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said at a press conference there were "early indications" the suspects, a father and

Watch live: Vance to tout Trump economic agenda in Pennsylvania

Vice President Vance will give remarks in Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning as President Trump is facing pressure over rising inflation and affordability concerns. His visit to the Keystone State comes about a week after Trump traveled to the state to sell his economic agenda

Trump’s National Security Strategy is an incoherent cop-out

The 2025 National Security Strategy does as much to undermine the international order that the U.S. was once proud to lead and protect as anything Russia and China have done.

Trump comments about Rob Reiner 'indefensible': Former adviser

David Urban, who served as a senior adviser on President Trump’s 2016 campaign, called Trump's remarks on the death of acclaimed actor-director Rob Reiner “indefensible” and suggested they could hurt the GOP in next year’s midterms. “First of all, my condolences go out to the

You Won’t Believe Who Lindsey Graham Blames for Bondi Beach Shooting

Somehow, Joe Biden is responsible for one of the most horrific shootings in Australian history. At least, that’s the narrative that Senator Lindsey Graham is pushing. In an interview with Fox News Monday night, the South Carolina lawmaker claimed that former Presidents Barack

Wiles was 'initially aghast' at Elon Musk-led evisceration of USAID

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview published Tuesday that she was at first "aghast" at Elon Musk's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). “I was initially aghast,” Wiles told author Chris Whipple in an article published in

Watch live: FAA chief testifies before House on air travel

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford will testify before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday morning on the state of air travel. The hearing comes less than a month after the record-long government shutdown ended. During

Wiles says Vance has been a 'conspiracy theorist for a decade'

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a sweeping interview published Tuesday that Vice President Vance has been a "conspiracy theorist” for a decade. Wiles made the remarks during a Vanity Fair interview in which she discussed various administration officials'

The Supreme Court’s opening wedge to end independent agencies

Donald Trump is about to get the green light from the Supreme Court to proceed with his MAGA plan to dismantle the administrative state.

Watch live: House Republicans give remarks amid pressure to extend ACA subsidies

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican leaders will speak with reporters Tuesday morning as Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to expire at the end of the month. GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber of Congress unveiled their own version of a health care bill, which

Pulitzer Board Demands Trump’s Tax and Psych Records in Lawsuit Twist

President Trump’s spiteful defamation suit against the Pulitzer Prize Board may backfire, as the latter is now demanding Trump’s psychological records, prescription medication records, and tax returns in the discovery process. Trump filed the lawsuit in 2022 after the board

Wiles says Bondi 'whiffed' on Trump supporters' interest in Epstein files

Attorney General Pam Bondi “whiffed” on understanding how much President Trump’s base of supporters cared about the release of the files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in an interview published Tuesday. “I think

Susie Wiles talks Trump's score-settling and retribution

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a new interview that she and President Trump had a "loose agreement" to move on from "score settling" after the first 90 days of his second term, but acknowledged his attacks against his opponents may "look like retribution" in

Mike Johnson Gives Most Pathetic Response to Trump’s Reiner Post

Not surprisingly, House Speaker Mike Johnson didn’t have anything to say about President Trump’s unhinged response to the tragic death of Hollywood icon Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. “Mr. Speaker, do you condemn Trump’s post about Rob Reiner?” CNN’s Manu Raju asked Johnson

Don’t throw the generative baby out with the AI bathwater

Picture a budget meeting at a government agency or a boardroom in a multinational firm. A generative AI system has drafted a cash-flow projection, summarized a 200-page policy report, and suggested a pricing tweak or benefits change. The prose looks polished, the charts look

US added 64K jobs in November, unemployment up slightly

The U.S. added 64,000 jobs in November as the unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent, according to delayed data released Tuesday by the Labor Department. Economists had forecasted a gain of 40,000 jobs and 4.4 percent unemployment rate, according to consensus estimates. The

Live updates: House, Senate attempt to move ahead on health plans with deadline looming

Lawmakers on Tuesday are scrambling to hammer out plans to address rising insurance premium costs before their holiday recess, as the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies looms large. The House Rules committee meets at 2 p.m., with the GOP leadership health plan on its

Why would an A+++++ economy have so many bankruptcies?

Despite President Trump's claims of an "A+++++" economy, rising bankruptcy rates among businesses, farmers, and health care companies indicate that the economy is facing significant challenges that need to be addressed.

Michelle Obama on death of Rob Reiner, wife: 'We were supposed to be seeing them that night'

Former first lady Michelle Obama said she was supposed to see acclaimed actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, just hours after they were found stabbed to death in their home in Los Angeles on Sunday. "We’ve known them for many, many years, and we were

Who was Michele Singer? Rob Reiner’s wife and creative partner

Reiner and Singer were found dead inside their Brentwood, California home on Sunday suffering from stab wounds, KTLA has confirmed.

The Movement: Conservatives face reckoning over Kirk conspiracy theories

Activists and commentators on the right are facing a reckoning over how to handle conspiracy theorists as podcaster Candace Owens and others purportedly digging into the assassination of Charlie Kirk have directed their fire at their friends and former colleagues at Turning

Supreme Court didn't do enough to make the 'right to confront' meaningful

Rather than assuming that anyone called to testify against a defendant in open court can do so truthfully and effectively, courts should adopt a more nuanced and contextual approach.

Capitol agenda: Parallel pushes for an 11th-hour health deal

Senate Republican on Trump's Reiner post: I think he 'should have said nothing'

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Monday that President Trump should not have weighed in on the deaths of acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, who were found with stab wounds over the weekend at their home in Los Angeles. Kennedy joined a

Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 is 'slop,' and here's why

Creepy, zany and demonstrably fake content is often called “slop.” The word's proliferation online, in part thanks to the widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence, landed it Merriam-Webster's 2025 word of the year.

Transcript: MTG Humiliates Trump over Reiner as MAGA Crackup Worsens

T he following is a lightly edited transcript of the December 16 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here . Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic , produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent. As you may have seen,

Semper folly: Abolishing the Marines would ignore history, geography

The Army, built for sustained heavy occupation, cannot deploy a brigade in under a month. The Marines, in contrast, are designed to deploy within 24 hours.

Tanning beds cause melanoma-linked DNA damage: Study

Researchers found melanoma-linked DNA damage extended to areas of the body usually sheltered from sun.

Watch live: Modern Money — The Next Chapter in Banking, Regulation & Financial Trust

Banks, fintechs and emerging digital asset firms are all working to build systems that are faster, more accessible and more interconnected. However, these industry changes bring their own set of risks and challenges for policymakers to address. How can innovation and oversight

The war on saturated fat, never based on good science, can now end

As people cut more saturated fat, the nation grew heavier and sicker — not healthier.

Cracks in Trump’s GOP widen over Reiner comments, AI

Morning Report is The Hill's a.m. newsletter. Subscribe here. In today's issue: ▪ Trump draws rare GOP pushback ▪ Obstacle ahead for health care vote ▪ US, Zelensky talk security guarantees ▪ Why Trump is handling Venezuela differently The rifts within President Trump’s

Trump picks fight with MAGA allies in issuing AI executive order

President Trump has picked a fight with allied MAGA conservatives on Capitol Hill by issuing an executive order to chill state efforts to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), a proposal similar to one that conservative critics of Big Tech defeated on Capitol Hill earlier this

Trump confronts Venezuela while de-escalating elsewhere

President Trump’s approach to foreign policy in Venezuela is presenting a stark contrast with his approach to other countries as he seeks to escalate tensions with the South American country. While Trump has presented himself as a peacemaker around the world, he has increased

The Dire Long-Term Damage of “Defunding” Planned Parenthood

For decades, Republicans have worked to “defund” Planned Parenthood, whose clinics provide a range of reproductive health services, including—most offensively to its detractors—abortion care. In July, the GOP majority in Congress largely accomplished that goal, at least

Senate health care talks flicker to life as ObamaCare deadline nears

A bipartisan group of senators is making a renewed push toward finding a health care solution as the hour-glass winds down to the end-of-month deadline to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. Roughly 20 senators met Monday night at the invitation of Sen.

History-making menorah unveiled under Biden not on display in Trump White House

A history-making menorah — which made its debut under former President Biden — is not on display as part of the Trump White House's annual holiday decor this year. The candelabra — created by the Executive Residence Carpentry Shop using historic wood from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.