Individually, all the reporters calling Trump’s personal cellphone aren’t getting consistent answers about his plan for Iran. But collectively, they are revealing something useful: more evidence that he doesn’t really seem to have one slate.com/news-and-pol...

I really enjoyed getting to pick your brain about this, @amyjnelsonphd.bsky.social!

Went outside my comfort zone to argue that “A House of Dynamite” is, despite its Oscars snub, the most important movie of the past year:

The discourse about whether Trump can TACO his way out of war with Iran is flawed on two levels. First, Iran (and maybe other countries, too) gets a say. And second, as a descriptor of how Trump actually behaves, “TACO” isn’t really true. My latest for @slate.com: slate.com/news-and-pol...

Americans think Donald Trump is focusing too much on international issues and not enough on domestic concerns like the economy. It’s a temptation several of Trump's predecessors have fallen into — to their and their parties’ political detriment slate.com/news-and-pol...

My first story for @slate.com (at least in a while) is about the double dose of bad economic news this week that cast new doubt on Donald Trump’s boast of delivering the “greatest economy ever” slate.com/news-and-pol...

After an eventful year @bostonglobe.com, I’m heading back to @slate.com to be a senior politics writer covering *gestures at all this.* I’m psyched to get started, so drop me a line at [email protected]

Key line from @assoumou.bsky.social “If you don’t come into my ICU because you were vaccinated, that’s a win.”

During Covid, more Mass. residents got flu shots. But fewer are now choosing to get them even as a bad flu batters the state. For today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point, @billhanage.bsky.social and @assoumou.bsky.social helped me think through why that might be www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/21/n...

The mayors of Lewiston and Portland, Maine are warning that immigration agents may soon descend on their cities. For today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point, I asked them about the intel behind their warnings, how residents are reacting, and what may come next www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/20/n...

The killing of Boston philanthropist John Axelrod and his dog, allegedly by a man struggling with mental illness, seems likely to renew hard discussions about the link between mental illness and crime. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point lays out what we know www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/08/n...

New year…old stories? I asked my @bostonglobe.com colleagues about the New England storylines they closely followed in 2025 and plan to keep covering this year. See their answers in today’s Starting Point: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/07/n...

The public reaction to Jan. 6 began as something close to collective horror. Five years later, Trump’s historical revisionism has destroyed any shared national understanding of what happened that day, today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/06/n...

Venezuela wasn’t a major focus of the 2024 campaign, and the explanations for the US campaign that culminated in Nicolás Maduro's ouster keep shifting. That makes it even harder than usual to guess what comes next, today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/05/n...

I’ve been reading The Best American Short Stories for years and was intrigued to find this year's collection full of stories and authors with New England ties. I called series editor @nicolealamy.bsky.social to discuss for today's @bostonglobe.com Starting Point www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/31/n...

I’ve been curious about how Providence is coping — and the questions residents are asking themselves — since the Brown University shooter was found. So I asked @bostonglobe.com reporter @alexagagosz.bsky.social, who’s based there, for today’s Starting Point: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/30/n...

Russia’s war in Ukraine isn’t just about land; it’s also an effort to erase Ukrainian culture and national identity. That’s one reason why a deal to end the fighting remains elusive, as today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/29/n...

At this point in President Trump’s first term, scandal and backbiting had cost many top administration officials their jobs. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains why internal chaos (Signalgate, Wiles in VF, etc.) hasn’t had the same effect this time www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/18/n...

In a recent poll, 76 percent of Americans said they didn’t think Trump had explained the goals behind his pressure campaign against Venezuela. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explores his possible motives, ranging from regime change to oil: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/15/n...

I've said it before: Talking out ideas with my colleagues and sharing them with Starting Point readers is among the most rewarding and fun parts of this job. If you're looking to understand how the Pats turned things around this year, @christopherprice.bsky.social has you covered.

For today’s Starting Point, @theatlantic.com is in the @bostonglobe.com! The magazine founded in 1857 by a group of Boston literary luminaries is going on tour, and I chatted with @jeffreygoldberg.bsky.social about coming back to the town where it all began www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/10/n...

Something different for today’s Starting Point: a lesson in (literally) rising above Boston’s infamously bad traffic from the legendary @bostonglobe.com photographer Stan Grossfeld www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/09/n...

If Trump and his allies prevail, you’ll soon see his name on the Kennedy Center, a football stadium, and an airport. As today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains, Trump’s branding efforts put him in the company of history's strongmen, not past US presidents www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/08/n...

What makes a workplace good? As @bostonglobe.com rolls out its annual list of Massachusetts’ top places to work, I put that question to resident expert @ktkjohnston.bsky.social for today’s Starting Point: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/03/n...

An emboldened Trump is stretching the pardon power in new ways: nakedly helping allies, accusing the previous administration of selective prosecutions, and placing a loyalist in charge. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/02/n...

Brian Walshe’s murder trial is underway in Norfolk Superior Court. If you’re just catching up with the case, today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains what you need to know: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/01/n...

Eel broth, salmon fishballs, and vermicelli “pudding”: To whet your appetite, today’s Starting Point catalogues the many strange ways New Englanders’ Thanksgiving menus have changed over the decades using recipes shared by @bostonglobe.com readers past www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/26/n...

Democrats and Republicans who have defied Trump have gotten bomb scares, death threats, and been swatted in recent days. And as today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains, a crackup in the Trump coalition could intensify America's political violence problem www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/25/n...

Very grateful to @weatherken.bsky.social for chatting with me about the outlook for New England this winter (spoiler: it’s looking snowier and colder than recent years) and how he does his job for today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/24/n...

As the penny vanishes into history, it has become a window into a vanished America. For today’s Starting Point, I dove into the @bostonglobe.com archives and found the humble coin embedded throughout our national story: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/20/n...

Former Treasury secretary Larry Summers and Elisa New, the poetry expert he’s married to, were paid to be discerning. So why did they keep in touch with Jeffrey Epstein for so long? Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explores a few possibilities: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/19/n...

The war in Sudan has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, yet compared to Ukraine and Gaza it’s gotten a fraction of the public’s attention. As today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains, the Sudanese community in Massachusetts hopes to change that www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/18/n...

Season 2 of “The Harvard Plan,” a @bostonglobe.com and @wnyc.org podcast about Trump’s war on Harvard, has wrapped. I called up host @ilyamarritz.bsky.social to discuss Harvard-educated conservatives and how the school is responding to public backlash www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/17/n...

Newly released emails suggest that Trump knew more about Jeffrey Epstein’s behavior than he has let on. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains what might happen next www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/13/n...

Spoiler: I said yes.

Many Democratic voters are frustrated with their leaders, much as Republicans were in the 2010s. For today's @bostonglobe.com Starting Point, I asked @amandalitman.bsky.social whether a liberal Tea Party is brewing bostonglobe.com/2025/11/11/newsletters/starting-point-democrats-shutdown-tea-party

Maine's Aroostook County, where a fifth of residents get SNAP, overwhelmingly backed Trump last year. But as his administration cites the shutdown to try to cut benefits this month, Aroostook is struggling. Today's @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/07/n...

Streaks — and the photos that capture them — don’t just happen. So today’s Starting Point takes you behind the scenes of how “prepared luck” helped @bostonglobe.com photographer Matt Lee capture a moment of triumph for a team that’s been on a roll: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/05/n...

Today’s highest-profile races might not be in New England, but some of the country’s best pollsters are. For today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point, I spoke with them about where they think the biggest races stand www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/04/n...

Great convo about literally building a better world. “I am a progressive in the literal sense of the word, which is like, you need progress. [...] We will see if there’s pushback in Cambridge or not. [...] are people more scared about change than they are about the problem of high housing costs?”

The intra-Democratic debate over “abundance” can feel lofty and abstract. So for today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point, I asked Cambridge city councilor @burhanazeem.bsky.social about how the zoning law he passed this year put abundance principles into action: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/03/n...

Bill Belichick’s second career — coaching collegiate football at UNC — is off to a bad start. But as today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains, Belichick is hardly the first star to struggle after making a career pivot www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/30/n...

Will Massachusetts’ new pay transparency law, which takes full effect today, succeed in reducing gender and racial wage gaps? Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explores: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/29/n...

“For hundreds of years we’ve been bending water to our will,” my colleague @shankman.bsky.social told me for today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point about the threat that flooding poses to Massachusetts. Now “the water is pushing back.” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/28/n...

The ongoing government shutdown is just the latest partisan fight over Obamacare, which continues to loom over our politics 15 years after it became law. And as today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explains, Massachusetts is a big reason why: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/27/n...

ICE has detained several Brazilian teenagers living in Mass. in high-profile cases this year. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point tells the story of how so many Brazilian immigrants came to live here in the first place: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/22/n...

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is cruising to a second term even as the leaders of other Democratic cities struggle. Today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point explores 4 reason why: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/21/n...

Adopting symbols of American patriotism is often a smart tactical choice for protest movements. So for today’s @bostonglobe.com Starting Point, I asked a few people at my neighborhood “No Kings” protest on Saturday about why they chose to do so: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/20/n...

Around 600 kids in Massachusetts’ child welfare system go missing each year. For today’s Starting Point, I spoke with two of my @bostonglobe.com colleagues who pieced together the tragic fate of one of those runaways www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/09/n...

Some photographs have a way of defining presidencies. Will this image — which shows the aftermath of an immigration raid in Mass., taken by @bostonglobe.com photographer Craig Walker — end up being one of them? www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/08/n...