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May 22, 2026

Damon Winter/The New York Times

This newsletter will be off on Monday for Memorial Day. We’ll be back on Tuesday.

Notable

The D.N.C. autopsy fiasco. “Democrats know they have a problem.”

— Michelle Goldberg, Opinion columnist

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There’s a way to stop Trump’s I.R.S. slush fund. “Every part of this farce is an affront to the Constitution.”

— Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee

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Pope Leo sends Silicon Valley to Sunday school. “A.I. can do remarkable things, but it can also sow disinformation and division. Leo stresses wisdom and relationships.”

— David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University

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Spotlight

David Huang

The Post-Colbert Future May Not Be What It Seems

‘For all the billions YouTube has spent, it has yet to create artists and shows that have the writing, production value or courage of a Jon Stewart, John Oliver or Stephen Colbert.’

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ICYMI

60% of grades at Harvard were A’s. Enough is enough. “Grade inflation doesn’t just devalue an A; it also quietly hands more weight to factors other than what a student actually learned.”

— Jason Furman, a contributing Opinion writer, and David Laibson, a professor of economics at Harvard University

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More in Opinion

Guest Essay The​ Democrats Who Could Upend ​American Politics in the Years Ahead Why 2026 might tell us a lot about 2028. By Dan Pfeiffer and John Guida

Guest Essay Here’s the Easy Way to Tax the Rich Forget complex schemes. There is an easier way to get revenue from the wealthy. By Zachary Liscow

Guest Essay Washington Is Still Trying to Rewrite Cuban History How can Cubans move forward if they aren’t ready to reckon with their past? By Michael J. Bustamante

Your Questions About Nicholas Kristof’s Column on Palestinians and Sexual Assault The Times offers answers to some of the pressing questions raised. By New York Times Opinion

Guest Essay I Survived Ebola. This Is What Scares Me Most About This Outbreak. The Trump administration cut the programs meant to coordinate an Ebola response. By Craig Spencer

john Mcwhorter A Black Helen of Troy? Fine. A White Obama? Not Yet. There are good reasons white actors should not be playing Black characters in our moment By John McWhorter

In Your Words

Re: “A Defense of a Liberal Arts Education in the Age of A.I.”

Those of us in tech (and of course in many other industries) are worried about our jobs being replaced by A.I. And maybe this is hopeful (and maybe naïve) thinking. But some human will have to sit in the meetings, decide on strategic direction, get buy-in from other humans, validate the assumptions of the A.I., and test and see with their own human eyes that the results from the testing are actually what we want the system to execute. Those humans will highly likely have come from a liberal arts, critical-thinking education. — A comment by Nicole from California

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