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Explainers

Hate crime or hoax? The drama behind the Jussie Smollett case, explained.

By Amanda Sakuma and German Lopez

Elizabeth Warren’s ambitious plan to fight the opioid epidemic, explained

By German Lopez

The biggest questions about the 2020 Democratic primary, answered

By Dylan Scott

Bernie Sanders is running for president again. This time, he’s a frontrunner.

By Tara Golshan and Li Zhou

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe vs. President Trump, explained

By Andrew Prokop

The 25th Amendment, explained: how a president can be declared unfit to serve

By Andrew Prokop

The big divide among 2020 Democrats over trade — and why it matters

By Tara Golshan and Dylan Scott

Brexit’s Irish border problem, explained

By Jen Kirby

The chaotic road to the 2019 Oscars ceremony, explained

By Alissa Wilkinson

Why Netflix’s Russian Doll keeps referencing Emily of New Moon

By Constance Grady

Colin Kaepernick’s collusion grievance against the NFL, explained

By P.R. Lockhart

Why Mueller said Roger Stone’s case is “related” to his Russian hacker indictment

By Andrew Prokop

The census lawsuit headed straight to the Supreme Court, explained

By Dara Lind

One of film’s greatest epics is a 7-hour adaptation of War and Peace. Really.

By Charles Bramesco

Trump’s wall won’t do anything about drugs

By German Lopez

Why Trump thinks a national emergency will get him his border wall

By Emily Stewart

The ongoing saga of Jeff Bezos’s sexts, explained

By Anna North

The fight between Ilhan Omar and Elliott Abrams, Trump’s Venezuela envoy, explained

By Zack Beauchamp

California has 149 million dead trees ready to ignite like a matchbook

By Umair Irfan

“Patient influencers” are the latest Instagram trend, and they want to sell you drugs and devices

By Suzanne Zuppello

The disturbing hypothesis for the sudden uptick in chronic kidney disease

By Julia Belluz

2 women were detained solely for speaking Spanish. Now they’re suing the Border Patrol.

By Alexia Fernández Campbell

Attorney general nominee William Barr’s “tough on crime” record, explained

By German Lopez

Donald Trump’s long history of racism, from the 1970s to 2019

By German Lopez

I’ve covered gun violence for years. The solutions aren’t a big mystery.

By German Lopez

America’s gun problem, explained

The public and research support gun control. Here’s how it could help — and why it doesn’t pass.

By German Lopez

Judge rules that Manafort deliberately lied to Mueller’s team during cooperation

By Andrew Prokop

Progressive activists get a big foreign policy win. It’s been an uphill battle.

By Tara Golshan and Alex Ward

Why Democrats aren’t taking up a bill to neutralize Obamacare’s latest legal threat

By Dylan Scott

A record number of US workers went on strike in 2018

By Alexia Fernández Campbell

Trump’s tweet that Senate investigators found “NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION,” explained

By Aaron Rupar

Howard Schultz’s campaign is based on 3 ideas, and they’re all wrong

By Ezra Klein

Why retailers overlook women who aren’t quite plus or straight size

By Nadra Nittle

How Democrats plan to shrink the gender pay gap

By Alexia Fernández Campbell

Ilhan Omar’s tweet revealed core truths about anti-Semitism in America

By Zack Beauchamp

Watch how the climate could change in these US cities by 2050

By Umair Irfan and Kavya Sukumar

The rise of the Instagram-friendly vibrator

By Rebecca Jennings

El Chapo found guilty of all counts at his US trial

By German Lopez

Congress’s deal on immigration detention, explained

By Dara Lind

The limits of ancestry DNA tests, explained

By Brian Resnick

Bill Gates tweeted out a chart and sparked a huge debate about global poverty

By Dylan Matthews

The case for capping all prison sentences at 20 years

By German Lopez
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