The Victims of Larry Nassar Who Dared to Come Forward First
In the summer of 2016, Rachael Denhollander was scrolling through Facebook at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, when she happened upon the cover story of the day’s Indianapolis Star. It was an investigation into U.S.A. Gymnastics, one of the nation’s most prominent Olympic organizations, concluding that for years the federation’s top officials had mishandled allegations…
Charging Julian Assange Under the Espionage Act Is an Attack on the First Amendment
It’s a sad day in America when the most appropriate thing to say is the line often misattributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” When basic rights are under attack from the government, the arguments that are called for are neither…
Can Data Be Human? The Work of Giorgia Lupi
The designer Giorgia Lupi was born in 1981 and believes that she is part of a special bridge generation. “I was raised in a completely analog environment,” she says. “I was a teen-ager when all of the awkward connection and human connection needed to be made in real life. But, at the same time, because…
Pelosi Takes Advantage of Trump’s Storming Out of Oval Office to Hide Nuclear Codes
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, took advantage of Donald Trump’s storming out of an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday to hide the nuclear codes, Pelosi has confirmed. Moments after Trump threw a tantrum and abruptly left his own office, the quick-thinking Pelosi turned to Senator Charles Schumer, who was also present for…
A Pitch for a Nationwide 5G Network Tailored to Trump’s 2020 Campaign
Earlier this spring, Karl Rove, the veteran Republican strategist, was making the rounds in Congress to talk up Rivada Networks, a telecommunications company with a 5G business model predicated on partnering with the Department of Defense. Rove, who is not a registered lobbyist but is an investor in Rivada, met with staff members of the…
Does Trump Have an Off-Ramp on Iran?
The Trump Administration’s pronouncements on Iran have gyrated at a vertiginous pace in recent days. On Sunday, after a golf game at his club outside Washington, D.C., the President returned to the White House and unleashed his fury on Twitter. “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran,” he vowed.…
What to Do in New York City This Weekend
These are our top picks for the weekend of May 24th-26th. For more event listings and reviews, check out Goings On About Town. Art Garry Winogrand once defined a photograph as “what something looks like to a camera.” Keep that in mind when viewing the Brooklyn Museum’s fiercely pleasurable, if somewhat flawed, show, consisting mainly…
The Frivolous Arrest of Another Russian Dissident
Conferences can be a bit like summer camp: people come together for a few intense days once a year, then return to their regular lives. Last week, in Tallinn, Estonia, I attended the Lennart Meri Conference on foreign policy and security. (I go most years.) I was on a panel with Leonid Volkov, a close…
Jefferson, Adams, and the SAT’s New Adversity Factor
“There is a natural aristocracy among men,” Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams from Monticello, in 1813, in one of the best-known passages from their vast post-Presidential correspondence. “There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtues or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class. The…
“Hostile Planet”: Animals Are Struggling to Adapt, and National Geographic Is, Too
When National Geographic’s nature series “Hostile Planet” débuted, in April, I avoided it for several reasons, chief among them the word “hostile.” The series is hosted by the British adventurer and TV personality Bear Grylls, known for swashbuckling feats of survival entertainment, which made me mildly suspicious, as did National Geographic’s ownership in recent years…