President Trump issued an executive order barring transgender service members from the military as part of a broader attack on transgender rights.

© Allison Robbert for The New York Times

The ruling, from Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, blocks President Trump’s quickest path to overturning his 2024 conviction for covering up hush-money payments to a porn star.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Continue reading...

© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

The 2026 revisions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics represent a downward adjustment of just 0.1 percent of the total work force.

© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Terrified of being seen as a loser, Donald Trump is nonsensically lashing out – even against our old friend Canada

I’m still grieving Dolly Parton. I never met her and always wanted to. She was almost exactly my age and my height and had values I deeply admired. Her death leaves a hole in the firmament.

Which brings me to the person whose values are as far from Dolly Parton’s as any human could possibly be and still claim to be human. I’m referring, of course, to the current occupant of the Oval Office.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The president senses a crisis in his cult of personality. He believes the path to victory is through unwavering devotion

Donald Trump has framed his theme for the midterm elections. It has come to him as naturally and inevitably as staring into the mirror, beyond any logic or argument, his definitive answer to no specific issue, providing no understanding of any particular problem, but transcending all of them. His political theme is more primal than programmatic, more instinctive than analytical, a heartfelt expression to protect his greatest romantic attachment, his obsessive fixation, his idealized object: himself.

Trump’s campaign theme is unrequited love. Unlike the pollsters, media consultants and pundits, he alone has grasped the magnitude and the source of the existential crisis threatening his politics. He has identified the problem for the Republicans as the faltering measure of complete devotion to him. His demand has nothing to do with mutual affection. It is a ploy to reassert his slipping control, a manipulative test to prove loyalty to him, or else. There can be no absolute rule without an absolute ruler; no absolute ruler without absolute submission; no absolute submission without the expression of absolute love. His sadness at its fading gives way to anger, paranoia and greater acts of retribution. He equates the fear he instills as a form of love. Trump accepts subservience, from whatever motive, as affection or its closest equivalent. He cares nothing about sincerity, so it’s all in the show. The less love displayed, the more fear required. Yet there is no rebound, but only deeper rejection.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Iranians have become increasingly desperate, as they grapple with an economic crisis made worse by the conflict and grow increasingly skeptical about President Trump’s motives.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

Plus, the Friday news quiz.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

Governor Mark Gordon, a Republican, said he was concerned by the behavior of election observers who visited a polling station in Cheyenne.

© Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Iranians have become increasingly desperate, as they grapple with an economic crisis made worse by the conflict and grow increasingly skeptical about President Trump’s motives.

© Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

There is a U.S.-led war in the Middle East and the midterm elections on the horizon, but President Trump’s latest priority seems to be “Making The Great Lakes Even Greater.”

© Cole Burston/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Robin Wigglesworth of Financial Times explains everything you need to know about the Trump administration’s meddling with the bond market.

© The Ezra Klein Show

President denies visit was to gain support for Iran sanctions or due to fears that Putin plans to ‘test Nato resolve’

Donald Trump has downplayed a visit to Moscow by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, as “semi-routine” after he turned up in the Russian capital unannounced, triggering a wave of speculation about the reasons for his trip.

Ratcliffe was reported to have flown to Moscow on a government transport plane on Tuesday in a rare visit after taking off from the Andrews air force base in Maryland.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

After reviewing the agency’s final plan to comply with President Trump’s demands, a federal judge barred the Postal Service from imposing new restrictions on mail-in voting.

© Zack Wittman for The New York Times

The government retaliated against the A.I. start-up “for constitutionally protected expressive activities,” a federal judge in California wrote.

© Karsten Moran for The New York Times

President Trump originally intended to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11 with remarks at ground zero, but the memorial’s organizers do not allow speeches. Mr. Trump changed his plans.

© Vincent Alban/The New York Times

We are approaching a credibility crisis with Scott Bessent and Kevin Warsh leading our economy.

© Nathan Howard/Reuters

The relative indifference to the news that the U.S. government now owes $40 trillion demonstrates how drastically the politics of deficit spending has changed.

© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The president also reiterated his criticism that Canada “treats us very badly.” Trade talks between the nations collapsed last week.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

The anti-woke movement’s “cure” was more intolerance and more repression.