Portside

Bharara was in part the inspiration for the Rhoades character who holds the same job in the Showtime drama “Billions.” Paul Giamatti plays the oh-so-intense federal prosecutor in the much-praised series, which is now in its second season and was renewed earlier this week for season three.

"What does it mean to have/a child in prison?" asks New Orleans poet Karen Maceira, observing how her mother answers and can't answer that question.

The lynching of Emmett Till some six decades ago still stands as a singular moment in the movement for black liberation, racial equality, and against racism. This new book revisits that history.

Raol Peck's attention to historical detail characterizes the film as a whole, and testifies to the clearly loving amount of research that went into making it. The result is an entertaining and surprisingly funny portrait of the young Karl Marx as the film follows Marx and Friedrich Engels and their joint struggle against various other contemporary socialist leaders, culminating in their collaboration on the Communist Manifesto.

Scientists who cracked quinoa's gene code say it could solve the world's looming food shortage. Quinoa has never been fully domesticated or bred to its full potential even though it provides a more balanced source of nutrients for humans than cereals. Researchers say that quinoa could provide a healthy, nutritious food source for the world using land and water that currently cannot be used, and the new genome makes it one step closer to that goal.

“Saturday Night Live” took a departure with its cold open this week, taking us out of the Trump White House — and into the universe of the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump.” Instead of Tom Hanks, it was Attorney General Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon) at the bus stop, eating chocolates and confiding in strangers about a rather momentous week.

Southern California poet Stephanie Brown knows a thing or two about a relationship that sours, suffers, and never recovers as it goes on.

This new book tells the inspiring story of a trailblazing group of women astronomers.

Barry Jenkins’s movie is a brave, brilliant work of art that also happens to be a black, gay story. What a shame if the announcement gaffe is what people remember about its victory. There were echoes of Hattie McDaniel, 76 years ago, who had to walk up to collect her Best Supporting Actress Oscar from a table way down the back of the hall and was seated separately from the rest of the Gone With The Wind stars. A moment of triumph tranished.

New bilateral trade agreements between the UK and the USA could see the former being forced to lift restrictions on food imports from the latter, including some products that have up to now been banned.