Annah Aschbrenner
@AnnahBackstrom
Deputy White House editor for @washingtonpost. Previously: @USATodayDC @DMRegister. Always: Michigander. Spartan. Pressure is a privilege.
My beautiful sister Kate left this world this week. She was my North star, the origin of everything good about me. If you didn’t know her, you surely would have loved her. Those who did know her are forever changed. obits.mlive.com/us/obituaries/…
As a longtime humanitarian who has battled famines and hunger crises, I fear that starvation in Gaza has now passed the tipping point and we are going to see mass-scale starvation mortality. A thread on famine momentum, famine response, and what it means for Gaza today.
Doctors and health officials report wave of hunger deaths in Gaza on.ft.com/46iUoK6
If this sounds familiar, its because Trump DOJ-appointed special counsel John Durham ran a four year investigation into this already. He charged 3 people and lost two of the cases. Here's his final report: justice.gov/archives/media…
For the good of the country, Senator @JohnCornyn and I urge Attorney General Bondi to appoint a special counsel to investigate the extent to which former President Obama, his staff and administration officials manipulated the U.S. national security apparatus for a political…
After 4 months of a near-total Israeli siege, Gaza’s hospitals now have wards for the malnourished children whose tiny bodies are just the width of their bones. Aid groups had warned of this for more than a year. Now a worst case scenario is upon us. washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/…
NEW: All the ways your access to vaccines changed under RFK Jr. A rundown of what Kennedy + federal health officials have said and done about commonly administered vaccines. Me + @rachel_roubein @LaurenWeberHP washingtonpost.com/health/2025/07…
Paul Ingrassia said bureaucracy magnifies “the worst elements of human nature,” called federal workers “parasites” and “bugmen” and said civil servants aren’t apolitical. He now wants to run the office that protects federal workers. His hearing is today. washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/…
Trump, Xi, Modi, Putin, Erdoğan, Netanyahu, Ramaphosa, Lula — all of them are in their 70s. In fact, more than half of the world’s population, and much of its military capacity, is in the hands of men who are older than Reagan when he entered the WH ft.com/content/1d41a5…
Peter Thiel is back in the game, quietly donating more than $850,000 this year to finance Republican incumbents attempting to retain their party’s control of the House in next year’s midterm elections. motherjones.com/politics/2025/…
‘Honey, your DNA was in the crime scene’ washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/…
Protesters in Tel Aviv took to the streets carrying flour bags and pictures of malnourished children from Gaza, calling for the end of the war on Gaza and prioritizing humanitarian aid reut.rs/4m9PROS
Obama’s office rebukes Trump admin’s treason claims as ‘distraction’ washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/…
Without much notice, the Education Department has suspended student loan forgiveness under a long-standing repayment plan, offering no timeline for resumption and little explanation for the decision. wapo.st/44Uy0o0
So thrilled for this!
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I'm always grateful when other news outlets choose to republish my work. The Guardian recently featured my latest piece on how the USDA is ending support for Black farmers, claiming historic discrimination has been sufficiently addressed. theguardian.com/environment/20…
scoop: @davejorgenson, one of the breakout stars of the Marty Baron era of The Post, is leaving to start his own company with two Post alums nytimes.com/2025/07/22/bus…
Statement by @weijia on behalf of the @whca on Trump excluding the @WSJ from the White House press pool as punishment for its coverage:
In 1965, the government tried replacing migrant workers with high-schoolers. It was a disaster. washingtonpost.com/history/2025/0…
My dispatch from inside a Miami courtroom last week, where Tesla is on trial over a fatal crash involving Autopilot. Tesla has previously avoided such trials with $$ — but this one made it to court, and the grieving family has been there every day to watch wapo.st/3IDsLSf
One year ago today, the @washingtonpost's recap of a monumentally historic decision: "Biden dropped out. This is how it happened," by @michaelscherer @tylerpager @jdawsey1 @AshleyRParker @yabutaleb7 washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/…
Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.