Opinion

Almanac for Oct. 7, 2026

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 7, the 280th day of 2026. There are 85 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Israel's retaliatory offensive and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war killed tens of thousands in Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population and destroyed vast areas until major combat subsided with an October 2025 ceasefire agreement. Also on this date: In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances ...

President Trump's destruction of the virtues of duty, honor and courage

This letter was jointly submitted to the office of Jack Bergman. President Trump has a pattern of destroying duty, honor, and courage. In the past, he reportedly disparaged veterans in general, calling them “suckers,” including Marines who died in Belleau Wood, and individually like John McCain by mocking his five years of imprisonment and torture after being shot down over North Vietnam. If he understood duty, honor, and courage, he would work to preserve the Kennedy Center and not insist that his name be placed on the building before the $257 million allotted by Congress one year ...

Editorial cartoon for Oct. 7, 2026

US treating adversaries better than allies a recipe for disaster

America's adversaries, especially those with nuclear weapons, sometimes seem to be treated more kindly by President Donald Trump than the country's oldest friends. Such U.S. unreliability risks encouraging nuclear proliferation by pushing countries to look out for themselves. Underscoring the dynamic: Trump rolled out the red carpet in Washington for Chinese President Xi Jinping while continuing to hold in abeyance a $14 billion arms package to Taiwan. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Trump has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G-20 summit in Florida in ...

Trump's Populist Image Is Dead

As predictions of a blue wave swell, it's worthwhile to remember that polls are sometimes wrong, that surveys have tended to undercount Trump voters (though they have been better in midterms), that professional prognosticators can err, and that Allan Lichtman is only right when he's lucky. And ...

Almanac for Oct. 6, 2026

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 6, the 279th day of 2026. There are 86 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad while reviewing a military parade. Also on this date: In 1927, the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, a feature film containing both silent and sound-synchronized sequences. In 1949, Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a U.S. citizen commonly known as "Tokyo Rose" for participating in Radio Tokyo propaganda broadcasts during World ...