Donald Trump’s recent executive order against flag-burning will not only encourage more of it, @DavidCole_Gtown argues, but “could also hand flag-burners a legal defense in the rare situation when they might otherwise be prosecuted”:

Trust in government “fell off the cliff during Vietnam and Watergate, and it’s basically been down ever since,” @danbalz said on @washingtonweek. He joined @JeffreyGoldberg to discuss lessons from his nearly 50-year career at “The Washington Post”:

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Even as most congressional Republicans are avoiding their constituents, Mark Alford of Missouri bucked his party and held 15 public events this week. @elainejgodfrey reports on what the representative heard:

Tennis is now easier to pick up than ever. “But its real advantage over other sports is what happens when you keep on playing,” Alexandra Moe writes.

Cracker Barrel is a culprit, not a victim, of the “dismal sameness seeping into much American life,” @GrahamDavidA argues in The Atlantic Daily.

The far right appears more comfortable with racism than at any point in the Trump era, but few MAGA figures are willing to be as unabashedly racist as Nick Fuentes. No matter how far he pushes his bigotry, his influence keeps rising, @alibreland argues.

America’s public servants are caught in the crossfire of a retribution campaign, William J. Burns argues. They deserved better.

The MAGA movement is focused on touting only the exceptional parts of our past “because having to look too closely at the disturbing parts of American history would mean having to look closely at the disturbing parts of themselves,” Clint Smith argues:

The rapid decline of American science has few precedents in history, argues @andersen. We are witnessing an unparalleled act of self-sabotage:

An aircraft flyby in Romania, a giant dust storm in Arizona, a grape harvest in France, a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park, an apple spill in Germany, and much more—via @TheAtlPhoto:

European officials say they can't tell what exactly Putin promised Washington behind closed doors, what U.S. officials took away from their discussions with Moscow, and where that leaves peace efforts, Vivian Salama and Jonathan Lemire report:

The selective prosecution of Trump’s political opponents could lead to a “dysfunctional cycle of revenge,” @conor64 argues.

Donald Trump is attempting a hostile takeover of the Fed’s board of governors, @LevMenand argues. Capturing it would provide the president with a big prize.

Scientists know that extreme weather events are becoming more severe, @AustynGaffney reports. But the Trump administration’s actions are holding them back from predicting how bad floods could get:

European officials say they can't tell what exactly Putin promised Washington behind closed doors, what U.S. officials took away from their discussions with Moscow, and where that leaves peace efforts, Vivian Salama and Jonathan Lemire report:

In this week's Atlantic Intelligence, a conversation between @IBogost and @LilaShroff about how school has turned into an AI free-for-all:

“It feels like the CDC is over.” Current and former CDC officials say that the departure of several top leaders will further undermine the agency’s ability to provide reliable guidance to Americans, Tom Bartlett reports.

In “Caught Stealing,” Darren Aronofsky does a “great job summoning a bygone Lower Manhattan,” David Sims writes. “Where Aronofsky is less successful, however, is making the action as alluring as its romantic backdrop.”

Trump's newest crypto endeavor isn't just another instance of his self-promotional ethos in action, Will Gottsegen argues in The Atlantic Daily.

"The idea that the law is a weapon the president uses to protect his friends and harass his enemies was brought into American politics by one man," @jonathanchait argues. "He now happens to be the one man who is very definitively above the law":