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Idra Novey’s Troubled Activists
The women in Idra Novey’s novels—activists, dissidents, and translators of fiction with high ideals—set out to do the right thing. But they often get trapped in the details. What begins as conviction...
View ArticleNetflix Won’t Save Prestige Cinema
The best movie of the year is only playing in few theaters in New York City. Alfonso Cuarón’s intimate yet epic Roma, the story of a young maid and the fracturing family she works for in early-1970s...
View ArticleThe Last Days of Rookie
On the last day of November, Tavi Gevinson announced that Rookie, the online magazine for teenage girls she launched in 2011, was shutting down. Cast in the mold of Jane Pratt’s Sassy, the heirless...
View ArticleThe Death of the WASP Elite Is Greatly Exaggerated
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is using the death of President George H. W. Bush to mourn the caste the late president belonged to. Bush, Douthat argues, was an exemplary member of the old WASP...
View ArticleThe Biggest Threat in the Postal Report Is to Rural Americans, Not Amazon
On Tuesday, President Trump’s task force on the U.S. Postal Service’s troubled finances released its report on the future of the agency. The word “Amazon” appears nowhere in the body of the report,...
View ArticleA Guide to Saudi Arabia’s Influence in Washington
At this point, the evidence that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew about—and likely ordered—the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is compelling. After CIA Director Gina Haspel’s...
View ArticleSlim Pickings for the Democratic Establishment
By this time next year, dozens of Democrats will have declared their candidacy for president; by this time next year, it’s possible that a dozen or more will already have dropped out. Party leaders are...
View ArticleThe Supreme Court’s Double-Jeopardy Dilemma
The Supreme Court appeared hesitant on Thursday to overturn almost two centuries of precedents that allow state and federal prosecutors to each charge a defendant for the same crime. In Gamble v....
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A Future With Less News
“I think news is incredibly important to society and democracy,” Mark Zuckerberg told a group of editors and media executives in May. The Guardian and its sister newspaper, The Observer, had reported...
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The Head and the Load Is a Kaleidoscopic Tour of Africa’s Colonial History
It begins with sirens, a weird greasy glissando creeping up the register then back down again. The sound is so familiar, but with a shock one realizes that these sirens are not mechanical—they are...
View ArticleTrump’s Reelection Doesn’t Hinge on a Recession
President Donald Trump’s advisers are rattled. Not because the second year of his presidency is about to end with little to show for itself. Or because the Mueller investigation is intensifying and...
View ArticleThe Trouble With Netflix’s New Cold War Thriller
Earlier this year, the first issue of Vogue Poland appeared on newsstands. The Polish imprint of the fashion magazine joined Vogue Russia (launched in 1998) and Vogue Ukraine (2013) as the brand’s...
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A Killing Season
Mike Wallace sat in his pickup truck on a dusty back road near his farm outside Leachville, Arkansas, typing impatiently into his cell phone. “I’m waiting on you,” he wrote. “You coming?” It was hot...
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France’s Yellow Vest Protesters Want to Fight Climate Change
Nearly 2,000 people were arrested during anti-government protests in France over the weekend, the fourth in a row that the Yellow Vest demonstrations have turned violent. French President Emmanuel...
View ArticleTrump Should Fear Indictment More Than Impeachment
Friday’s wave of court filings in the Russia investigation and the federal probe into the Trump Organization increased the likelihood that President Donald Trump broke the law in the run-up to the 2020...
View ArticleCan the Yellow Vest Movement Remake French Politics?
As hundreds gathered at the St. Lazare train station Saturday morning for “Act Four” of the so-called Yellow Vest protests, police patrolled the surrounding streets, conducting searches and identity...
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Have the Democrats Hit a Tipping Point on Climate Change?
When President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address nearly a year ago, he didn’t talk about climate change. But he didn’t get criticized nearly as much as the Democratic Party...
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Lucia Berlin’s Art of Retelling
In a good short story, nothing happens until something happens, and makes you realize that actually something was happening all along. Without knowing it, this whole time you had been watching events...
View ArticleMary Queen of Scots in the Age of Brexit
Saoirse Ronan made a colossal mistake in taking the role of Queen Mary in the new historical drama Mary Queen of Scots. Not because she plays the character badly—she does a sterling job. It’s a mistake...
View ArticleBig Tech’s Reckoning May Be Imminent After All
Sundar Pichai and House Republicans probably went to bed on Tuesday feeling satisfied with the result of the Google CEO’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee. House Republicans got to spend...
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