The Week Magazine November 7, 2025

Chief Justice John Roberts, behold your dysfunctional handiwork. In 2019, the Supreme Court had a precious opportunity to restrict or ban gerrymandering—the antidemocratic dark art of drawing bizarrely shaped election districts designed to ensure that only one party can win. But in a 5-4 decision, the conservative majority ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that while partisan gerrymandering may be “incompatible with democratic principles,” federal courts cannot manage the “political questions” created when legislators give their parties unfair advantage. In her fiery dissent, Justice Elena Kagan predicted that the court’s cowardice would enable further “polarization and dysfunction” that “may irreparably damage our system of government.” And so it has. A plague of partisan redistricting is now spreading across the nation, as Republicans and Democrats compete to eliminate each other’s House…

What happened Pain from the government shutdown spread across the country this week, as food benefits were set to halt for more than 40 million Americans, shortages of air traffic controllers caused flight delays to spike, and some 65,000 young children faced losing access to education, meals, and health care through the Head Start program. “Things are getting real,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). As hardship grew for unpaid federal workers amid the now month-old shutdown, their largest union called on Congress to pass a “clean” funding bill, something Democrats have refused to do without an extension of enhanced subsidies for the 24 million Americans who get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Federal workers “standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck” deserve better…

As Affordable Care Act enrollees get letters outlining their 2026 rates, many are experiencing “sticker shock,” said Anna Wilde Mathews and Sabrina Siddiqui in The Wall Street Journal. Premiums are set to spike 26% on average, according to KFF—but the lost federal subsidies could cause the premiums of many households to more than double. Clint and Cindy Kittrell, retirees in Pendleton, Ore., were stunned to learn that their ACA plan will now cost about $2,500 a month instead of $305. With chronic conditions that require regular care—he has muscular dystrophy, she needs injections for “crippling nerve pain”—they are considering moving overseas “where care might be cheaper.” As Republicans “grapple with voter frustration” over rocketing costs, they face a problem, said Joey Cappelletti and Ali Swenson in the Associated Press: While…

What happened The U.S. military stepped up preparations this week for a possible assault on Venezuela, moving a carrier group to join the warships already in the Caribbean even as it intensified a bombing campaign aimed at what President Trump called drug-smuggling boats. Some 17,000 U.S. troops are now in the region, armed with enormous firepower. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military conducted air strikes in the Pacific near Colombia this week, killing 14 alleged “narco-traffickers” on four separate vessels. Since the first such attack in September, at least 57 people have been killed, although the administration has provided no evidence linking the victims to drug trafficking and U.S. military officials involved in the operations have reportedly been asked to sign nondisclosure agreements. Members of Congress complained they were…

■ Walking to what she thought was an ordinary school event at a Buffalo, N.Y., elementary school, principal Brianna Lanoye was handed a veil and a white flower bouquet, then led out to the campus’s courtyard—transformed into a wedding venue. Waiting for her was her fiancé, Zach, and the school’s students from pre-K to fourth grade. A student officiated, and the bride and groom exchanged candy rings. While the real ceremony took place weeks later, Lanoye felt deeply touched. “They are all a part of my family.” ■ The Ironman World Championship triathlon in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, is a brutal test for athletes of any age: a 2.4-mile swim in Kailua Bay, followed by a 112-mile bicycle ride alongside lava fields and against coastal winds, before a 26.2-mile marathon with a…

“For a decade, President Donald Trump has bulldozed through the norms that govern the presidency,” said Laura Barrón-López in MSNBC.com. “That metaphor turned literal” last week when excavators, at Trump’s direction, tore down the East Wing of the White House to make way for his planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. Like so many of Trump’s actions, the demolition is both of dubious legality—he ignored the standard approval process, and this week fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, which had been due to review the project—and contradicts his own prior promises, in this case not to “interfere” with the East Wing’s structure. The Trumpiness doesn’t stop there, said Matt Ford in The New Republic. The project’s $350 million price tag is being covered by the usual cabal of corporate…