The Angle

The Angle: Big Day Edition

Slate’s daily newsletter on opioid recovery activism, Kevin Spacey, and the Mueller news.

Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager, leaves court after pleading not guilty following his indictment on Monday in Washington. 

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Monday shocker: Everyone get tons of work done today? Nothing too distracting online? Good.

Looking at the shape of Monday’s indictments, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern think Trump should be pretty nervous. (Fred Kaplan agrees and thinks the Papadopoulos charges are particularly telling.) Russia may have turned Manafort by using his involvement in Ukraine against him, John Reed argues. Here’s a timeline, by Kate Brannen, of the relationship between Manafort and Trump—which, contra Trump’s blitheness on the topic, goes deep. Finally, our Fox News correspondent, Justin Peters, reports that Foxies seem pretty desperate to keep Trump from tweeting about the indictments. (Good luck.)

The fighters: We’ve got plenty of “awareness.” People addicted to opioids desperately need treatment options, which are way too expensive and scattershot right now to be of any help. Zachary Siegel thinks what’s needed are activists who will do what groups like ACT UP did for AIDS: Push the government relentlessly until something is done.

Time is life: The undocumented teenager Jane Doe finally got the abortion she fought for last week. Chavi Eve Karkowski points out that when it comes to abortion, four weeks makes a huge difference to the mother’s health.

Bad and dangerous: Kevin Spacey’s cynical coming-out announcement on Sunday turned the gay community into a giant protective barrier between himself and allegations of sexual misconduct. Christina Cauterucci is furious.

For fun: “Meanwhile, on Fox” has its heyday.

Almost too easy,

Rebecca