Events

Of note or interest: The BBC's political editor asks if the Brexit deadline is even possible now. The New York Times has a good recap of yesterday's marathon Commons sitting. So does the Washington Post. The president fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, which was the right thing to do for all the wrong reasons. Peter Wehner reminds us that the president is "not well." What's with Jerry Falwell and pool boys, anyway? Matti Friedman explains how memories of "the situation" will inform next...

After sitting for 824 days—the longest time since World War II—the UK Parliament prorogued last night in a scene reminiscent of 1629: The chaos unfolded in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after a day of high drama in which Boris Johnson lost his sixth parliamentary vote in as many days and Bercow announced his impending retirement as Speaker. As the prorogation got under way, Bercow expressed his anger, saying it was “not a normal prorogation”. “It is not typical. It is not standard. It’s one of the...

Remember back in May 2017, barely a couple of months in office, when the president bragged to the Russian Foreign Secretary about some intelligence we'd developed on ISIS in Syria? That disclosure resulted in a dangerous and expensive mission to exfiltrate one of our highest-level assets within the Russian government: The decision to carry out the extraction occurred soon after a May 2017 meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump discussed highly classified intelligence with Russian Foreign Minister...

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, announced this evening in London that he would step down at the end of October: At the 2017 election he promised his wife and children that it would be his last, he says. He says if the Commons votes for an early general election, his tenure as Speaker and as an MP will end when this parliament ends. He says, if MPs do not vote for an election, he has concluded the least disruptiveoption will be to stand down at close of play on Thursday 31 October. He...

If you haven't checked out the Apollo Chorus of Chicago's season this year, now's the time. Our first concert, on November 3rd at St Michael's Church in Old Town, is totally free and will showcase our entire season. Right now I'm entering all of our just-accepted new members into the official member database. Looks like we have some really good singers joining tomorrow.

...is a character on TV, according to TV critic James Poniewozik, writing in today's Sunday Review: The taunting. The insults. The dog whistles. The dog bullhorns. The “Lock her up” and “Send her back.” All of it follows reality-TV rules. Every season has to top the last. Every fight is necessary, be it against Ilhan Omar or Debra Messing. Every twist must be more shocking, every conflict more vicious, lest the red light grow bored and wink off. The only difference: Now there’s no Mark Burnett to impose...

Greg Sargent makes the case that Mitch McConnell keeps finding new ways to diminish himself by supporting the president: The diversion of military funds to pay for President Trump’s border wall obsession — which is taking money away from more than 100 military projects around the country, just as a junkie’s habit might take money from the grocery kitty — provides an opening to reconsider the extraordinary depths to which Mitch McConnell has sunk to enable Trump’s corruption. The Senate majority leader...

The Benn Bill, which would prevent Britain from crashing out of the EU without a deal in place, passed the House of Lords this afternoon and may receive Royal assent as soon as Monday evening. Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, sees a real possibility that the Conservative Party could win a snap election by a considerable margin, with or without an October 31st Brexit: Here’s why: It seems inevitable now that a general election will happen this October or, at the very latest, November. If Brexit has not...

Monty Python's Life of Brian turned 40 on August 17th. The BBC has a retrospective: The Pythons’ satire wouldn’t target Jesus or his teachings, instead caricaturing political militants, credulous crowds, the appeal of throwing stones at people, the complexities of Latin grammar, and the difficulties of being a tyrant when you’ve got a speech impediment. “I thought we’d been quite good,” said Idle in Robert Sellers’ behind-the-scenes book, Very Naughty Boys. “We’d avoided being specifically rude to...

Let's see, where to begin? The UK House of Lords today agreed to progress the Benn Bill, clearing the way for it to go to the Queen as early as Monday. Boris Johnson's brother resigned from Parliament citing a conflict between family and country. Yascha Mounk calls Johnson's prorogation of Parliament "the most dangerous assault on Britain's institutions in living memory." Political scientist Will Jennings tries to find the Brexit option most palatable to the "median voter." Sterling rose to a 3-week...