Six Stories for Your Weekend
Our editors compiled six stories to serve as your weekend reads. Spend time with articles about why grandparents are reaching their limit, an 'impossible' disease outbreak in the Alps, the Trump administration's many conflicts of interest, and more.
I Should Have Seen This Coming
When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.
By David Brooks
An 'Impossible' Disease Outbreak in the Alps
In one tiny town, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with the rare neurodegenerative disease ALS. Why?
By Shayla Love
Kleptocracy, Inc.
Under Trump, conflicts of interest are just part of the system.
By Anne Applebaum
The Retired J.P. Morgan Executive Tracking Trump's Deportation Flights
A CFO turned activist has become a go-to source for understanding the administration's immigration crackdown.
By Nick Miroff
A Defense Against Gaslighting Sociopaths
If you can recognize their signature move, then forewarned is forearmed.
By Arthur C. Brooks
Grandparents Are Reaching Their Limit
Older Americans might be doing more child care than ever.
By Faith Hill
The Week Ahead
Thunderbolts*, a Marvel film about a ragtag group of antiheroes (in theaters Friday)
The Four Seasons, a comedy-drama show starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey (premieres Thursday on Netflix)
Girl on Girl, a book by the Atlantic staff writer Sophie Gilbert about how pop culture and hypersexualization transformed a generation of women (out Tuesday)
Essay
The Worst Job in America
By Rose Horowitch
It makes for a most tempting 'Help Wanted' ad: Earn $5 million a year to lead one of the nation's most powerful and prestigious institutions. Enjoy fancy dinners, almost unlimited travel, and a complimentary mansion in Upper Manhattan.
This is an incomplete list of the perks that the president of Columbia University receives. And yet no one seems to want the job.
Read the full article.
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Catch Up on
Tesla's remarkably bad quarter is even worse than it looks.
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The real legacy of Pope Francis
Photo Album
Take a look at the life of Pope Francis, in photos.
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New York Post
29 minutes ago
- New York Post
Journalist recounts harrowing broad-daylight sex assault in DC – says cops refused to include the attack in crime stats
A formerly DC-based journalist revealed Thursday that she was 'violently attacked and sexually assaulted' in the nation's capital – and that the city's police department refused to include the incident in their crime stats. Anna Giaritelli, a homeland security reporter with the Washington Examiner, detailed the heinous, broad-daylight assault against her, as well as the response from the Metropolitan Police Department and the court system, in a dramatic op-ed – which comes days after President Trump announced a sweeping crime crackdown in Washington, DC. 'On a Saturday morning in 2020, I walked out of my apartment on Capitol Hill to mail a package at a post office several blocks from the US Capitol. I put on my black sweatshirt and black sweatpants then headed out the door. I never made it to the post office,' Giaritelli wrote. 'Just one block from my apartment building's entrance, I was attacked by a large man well over six feet tall. He charged at me for a reason that I still do not understand. In broad daylight and on well-traveled 2nd Street NE next to Union Station, I fought to get away as he sexually assaulted me,' she continued. 'If it had not been for others in the vicinity, including a construction worker named Donny who heard my screaming and ran to my rescue, I don't know if I would be here today.' Trump has deployed the National Guard and hundreds of federal law enforcement officers to the streets of DC to address crime in the city. Giaritelli explained that the attack demonstrated to her, firsthand, how 'DC police and the courts fail the public.' Despite her attacker, described as a 'homeless man,' being apprehended 'months later' and sentenced to prison time, Giaritelli wrote: 'If you look for evidence that the attack happened in the city's crime statistics, you won't find it.' 'DC police covered up the unspeakable wrong that the stranger did to me,' the reporter said. The Metropolitan Police Department's online 'Crime Cards' statistics page – which purportedly tracks criminal offenses and pegs them to a map, showing where they occurred in the district – does not include Giaritelli's attack and sexual assault, she claims. 'When I asked MPD in 2020 why my incident was not on its crime map, an MPD spokesman said the city only includes 1st degree felonies under its crime stats,' the reporter explained. 'That would mean that for every person robbed, assaulted, or sexually abused in anything less than egregious ways, you have not been counted into the total tally.' 'The pain you suffered was not severe enough, according to MPD's standards.' The reporter said her attacker was arrested five times — and released from jail every time — as he awaited trial for his sex crimes. Giaritelli said she was then told by MPD, this week, that the crime map does include 'some sex abuse charges, but not all of them.' She noted that the crime against her is still not listed in the online database. Giaritelli praised DC law enforcement's immediate response to the attack, noting that they collected DNA evidence which they were able to match to a vagrant about two months later, leading to his arrest. Her attacker, however, was 'immediately released from jail' by the judge handling the case, leading Giaritelli to very reasonably fear that he was back 'living in a tunnel' just blocks from her apartment. The vagrant was 'arrested in five separate incidents' and allowed out of jail every single time, while he awaited trial for the sexual assault, Giaritelli said. MPD did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment. Trump on Monday claimed that DC's crime statistics – showing violent offenses down about 26% compared to last year – were 'phony' and promised that Attorney General Pam Bondi will be 'looking into that.' The president further noted that a DC police commander was suspended last month for allegedly falsifying crime data to make trends appear more positive.
Boston Globe
29 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Crime ‘hot spots' targeted, encampments cleared, as feds expand D.C. push
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up National Guard troops are trained in 'common sense, and they're very tough people,' Trump said. He later added that 'they're trained in not allowing people to burn down buildings and bomb buildings and shoot people and all the things.' Advertisement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers walked on the National Mall on Thursday. Anna Moneymaker/Getty D.C. police data shows violent crime, after a historic spike in 2023, The 800 National Guard members mobilized to protect D.C. are not armed and will not be conducting law enforcement activities, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters Thursday. That is the case, even though under federal Title 32 orders, which is the authority Trump used to activate them, they could conduct law enforcement if asked. Advertisement 'They will not be arresting people,' Wilson said. The statements from Trump administration officials came amid a flurry of developments, including D.C. police Chief Pamela A. Smith issued an executive order allowing the city's officers to share information about people who are not in custody and to transport U.S. immigration authorities and the people they detain. That cooperation on a major Trump administration priority does not change the D.C. law that prohibits local law enforcement from providing information about people in D.C. custody to federal immigration enforcement. On homelessness, District officials were bracing for the potential on Thursday night for the federal government to expand efforts to clear homeless encampments. City officials spent the day continuing to press people living outside to swiftly enter shelters so they could avoid being caught up in federal cleanup campaigns. The Trump administration has threatened to fine or arrest any individuals who refuse to be removed or placed in shelters. Local advocacy groups asked city officials to prepare for a possible increase in those seeking shelter, including those who have long objected to the strictures that can come with the services provided in such places. Homeland Security Investigations officers spoke with a food truck vendor on the National Mall on Thursday. Anna Moneymaker/Getty The National Park Service has regularly cleared homeless encampments on federal land in the District in past years. Earlier this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that '70 homeless encampments have been removed by the U.S. Park police' since March. In the same briefing, Leavitt said only two encampments remained in National Park Service jurisdiction in D.C. 'The removal of those two remaining camps is scheduled for this week,' Leavitt said. Advertisement Members of D.C.'s Health and Human Services team began clearing an encampment Thursday morning on a grassy no-man's-land near the Kennedy Center after giving residents a day's notice to remove their belongings. By 8 a.m., three people had already packed their belongings and scattered. Six more were busy wiping down their tents and folding tarps to meet a 10 a.m. deadline set by the District. Several residents said they had been at the encampment for months. 'It's a longer walk than it looks across the bridge to Virginia,' said David Beatty, 67, who has lived in the camp for eight months. 'If I can get my stuff in storage, I'll do what I usually do. … I have a broom and a dustpan, and I walk around sweeping up.' The District usually posts notices for clearing 14 days in advance, and the site had not been on the District's list for clearings. Rebecca Dooley, a spokesperson for the deputy mayor for health and human services, said the encampment's proximity to the highway qualified it for expedited removal, which requires only 24 hours' notice. Dooley said the decision to clear the site was made Wednesday by the city's health and human services agency. When asked if the White House was involved in the decision, she referred questions to the mayor's communications team. A White House official said on background that they were 'unable to confirm specific locations or details on operational efforts in the interest of the safety and security of all involved.' A sign advocating support for homeless people is shown at a homeless encampment near the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday. Win McNamee/Getty About a half dozen outreach workers from nonprofits helped residents pack up. Dooley said they made offers of shelter to the people who were leaving the encampment, but she was unsure if anyone had taken them up on it. Advertisement 'We're following our own protocol,' she said, noting that there are no plans to arrest people who turn down shelter referrals. She said it is the only cleanup scheduled for Thursday. William Wilson, 66, dragged his cart of clothes and camping gear up the hill. 'I'd like to invite the president to spend some time here in a tent with us,' he said. 'We're nice people. We're a family here — we get along.' Among those facing federal enforcement, and the prospect of being forced off the streets, one key issue is storage, said Amber Harding, executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. 'Shelters have a two-bag maximum, so people might not want to go to a shelter if they don't want to throw away their stuff that can't fit into two bags. So we have been trying to work with the city to make sure they have storage options,' Harding said. Location is another factor. 'Right now the shelter spaces the government has are not downtown,' Harding said. 'That means people will have to be transported there, which means moving away from where they are currently staying, from the people they know and the places where they are currently getting services.' D.C. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1) said she was deeply concerned about federal encampment clearings. 'When this kind of dramatic action is taken, it erodes the trust we have built with folks living outside and diminishes our ability to bring them into permanent housing and get them stabilized,' she said. Advertisement The National Park Service and Park Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The clearings come as the presence of federal law enforcement has become more visible in portions of the District. Trump declared an emergency in D.C. earlier this week and put the city's police department under federal control. A person geld a sign as Department of Homeland Security Investigations agents joined Washington Metropolitan Police Department officers as they conducted traffic checks at a checkpoint along 14th Street in northwest Washington, on Wednesday. Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press The actions have sparked mixed reactions among residents, with some outraged by Trump's decision and some offering varying levels of support. In Northwest Washington, a checkpoint with local and federal law enforcement officers on Wednesday evening On Thursday, a group of 17 former elected officials from the District circulated a joint statement warning that Trump's 'strongman tactics' were dangerous for the city and the nation. 'There is no emergency that warrants this action,' they wrote, adding that the president and Congress can further cut crime by appointing judges to fill critical vacancies. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who has decried Trump's actions as 'an authoritarian push,' has also sought to work constructively with federal authorities. The mayor said on social media that she was temporarily out of the District on Thursday to pick up her daughter from camp but had remained in constant contact with key officials. The federal presence has been aggressive at times, including with immigration enforcement. The National Guard, meanwhile, has had a somewhat relaxed posture. 'Their initial mission is to provide a visible presence in key public areas, serving as a visible crime deterrent,' the Army said on social media. 'While they will not conduct arrests, they have the authority to temporarily detain individuals to prevent imminent harm, ensuring that custody is promptly transferred to law enforcement authorities.' Advertisement The Pentagon's Wilson said the troops also will carry out 'area beautification' without offering elaboration. Area beautification is military parlance for trash collection, landscaping and other tidying up on military installations. Though they are not armed, the troops are wearing body armor. Some have been seen around the city wearing soft caps instead of helmets as they take selfies with passersby. Weapons are stored miles away at their armory, ready if needed, the Army said. On Wednesday, Trump said the administration intends to ask for an extension of the emergency declaration beyond 30 days. Such a move would require congressional approval. At the same time, some federal officials indicated that they continue to operate on a time frame of about a month. Members of the National Guard patrolled near Union Station on Thursday. Kevin Dietsch/Getty National Guard troops are on orders lasting for 30 days, a defense official told reporters on the condition of anonymity to provide details that have not yet been discussed publicly. Maegan Vazquez, Dylan Wells, Olivia George, Meagan Flynn, Brittany Shammas and Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.
Vox
30 minutes ago
- Vox
And Just Like That gives Carrie Bradshaw a weirdly perfect ending
is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic. And just like that, Carrie Bradshaw is single again. For the last three seasons, fans have watched TV's greatest anti-heroine begin an entire new set of adventures. After HBO original Sex and the City ended in 2004 (followed by the fun 2008 film of the same name and its not-so-fun 2010 sequel), And Just Like That picked up in 2021 with Carrie's happily ever after. The most fabulous woman in Manhattan seemed to have everything she's ever wanted: a loving marriage to her Mr. Big (Chris Noth), a condo on Fifth Avenue, financial security beyond her wildest dreams, and a truly gigantic closet. But no one is immune to late life's indignities, apparently not even Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker). In the show's often-clunky style, Carrie faced a series of dismal realities. She became a widow; she hosted a podcast; she left behind her beloved apartment for a beautiful but strangely empty Gramercy Park brownstone. She wasted a bunch of her (and the audience's) time on an ill-fated attempt at rekindling her romance with the country Lurch known as Aidan Shaw (John Corbett). Money remained a non-issue for Carrie, but the show often reminded us that not even immense amounts of wealth could insulate you from life's dishonors. In the series finale — which showrunner Michael Patrick King abruptly announced at the beginning of August — Carrie finds herself at a place not unlike when we first met her in that pilot episode years ago: single, in heels, living in Manhattan, bolstered by her friends, but wondering if there's love left in the Greatest City on Earth. It's not the fairytale ending. But Carrie's story ending by herself feels true. Truer, even. The original show wrapped with true love for all of its heroines, but something felt off. The real point of Sex and the City was always Carrie's relationships with Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Samantha (the now-absent Kim Cattrall). While And Just Like That has been criticized for its tone and poor writing (one secondary character was seemingly killed off twice), it managed to give Carrie Bradshaw an ending that captured the daring admission of the original: that being lucky in love is good, but being lucky in friendship is everything. And Just Like That's surprise Thanksgiving from hell From urinating on themselves, to getting roasted on stage by their nonbinary comedian ex, to dying on a Peloton, the characters of And Just Like That seemingly exist only to be humiliated. In King's world, life after 40 is nothing but a gauntlet of perverse embarrassments. The continued indignities of aging — so imaginatively bleak that death starts to seem like a sweet release — have turned And Just Like That into a show that people resent, criticize, and demand 17 more seasons of. One cannot fathom the horrors Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda will face each week, usually centered on their bodies betraying them or being left behind by a world that deems them too old. Each new mortification feels shocking, sacrilegious to the show's glamorous predecessor. At the same time, there's kind of a perverse glee in watching how deranged it all can get. What do you mean Carrie had hip replacement surgery and, in a temporary state of medicated paralysis, was left to listen helplessly as her coworker passionately throttled Miranda's lower half like a rotary phone in the other room? Charlotte battling a bout of vertigo and falling into an art installation with fake ejaculate cannot be real, can it? Miranda had sex with a virgin nun played by Rosie O'Donnell? What is a person supposed to say to that… okay??? Unfortunately for Carrie, she endures one final degradation in the series finale: Miranda's Thanksgiving. In the world of AJLT, a beloved American holiday about remembering the things we're grateful for unfurls into a nightmare. Everyone but Carrie has bailed on Miranda's get-together, staying with their own husbands and families. Since Carrie possesses neither, she has to witness a trainwreck that includes raw turkey, a clogged toilet and brown fecal water, an Italian greyhound emergency at the vet, the future mother of Miranda's grandchild and her obnoxious friends, and a failed, surprise set-up attempt. Eating with a giant doll is one of the small humiliations that a single woman like Carrie Bradshaw must endure on And Just Like That. Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max There's a heavy-handed point to all this misery. This gathering is a crystallization of Carrie's future. In this era of her life, Carrie Bradshaw is single, and if she doesn't want to spend Thanksgiving alone, she might have to endure a few lousy ones at the hands of her friends. It all comes around to the bigger question: What if Carrie's future does not include one more love? Is that okay? 'I have to quit thinking maybe a man, and start accepting maybe just me,' she tells Charlotte. 'And it's not a tragedy.' Having survived a holiday radiating such dark, melancholic energy, Carrie taps out. Going home alone isn't such a hardship, though. She returns to her gorgeous mansion to eat pie in heels. For her, it's heaven. After all, this is the woman who professed to find true joy in tearing open a sleeve of saltines and smearing a sliver of grape jelly on each one, while reading an entire issue of Vogue standing up. What Carrie has is actually the furthest thing from tragic, rather, something much more thrilling — something that the original show should have considered. And Just Like That dared to give Carrie and ending that Sex and the City didn't The most frustrating thing about Sex and the City is how its ending betrayed the show's heart and soul. For six seasons, the show touted the revolutionary concept that its heroines — Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha — just needed each other. SATC was unafraid to imagine that female friendship could be more powerful, more enduring, and more satisfying than romantic love. 'Don't laugh at me,' Charlotte tells her best friends in season four. 'But maybe we can be each other's soulmates.' The idea of soulmates has largely been framed as romantic good fortune, the notion that the universe has picked out lives meant to be lived together, if only these hopeful lovers can find one another. SATC offered a more optimistic reimagining, a theory that our best friends are the true matches we should be so lucky to find in this world. Despite the show's title, sex and love were never really part of the show's fairytale. Men were often terrible, rarely lasting more than an episode. Sex was rarely sexy, more often skewered than celebrated. It's sort of a shame then, at the end of the series, that these four soulmates all end up married to or are exclusively committed to men nowhere near as magical as they are. Miranda marries Steve (David Eigenberg), and opens up their home to his mother. Charlotte converts to Judaism, marries Harry (Evan Handler), and they adopt a baby from China. Samantha beats cancer and asks for a monogamous relationship with Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis). Carrie leaves her callous Russian boyfriend (Mikhail Baryshnikov) for Big, and returns to New York with the man she's been chasing all these years. Maybe Carrie Bradshaw never needed a man for a happy ending. Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max We're meant to see these as happy, fulfilled endings — even though our main characters were all essentially separated from one another. The relationships they nurtured through some of their worst moments — Carrie's heartbreaks, Miranda's mother dying, Samantha's cancer, Charlotte's divorce — were pushed aside to accommodate men. The show told us over and over that these friends could have a fulfilled life with just each other, but it didn't seem to truly believe its own revolutionary message. As clumsy as AJLT was at times, it had a better sense of what the original show meant. Carrie finally stumbled upon the realization that her life never needed marriage, romantic love, or maybe even sex, to be fabulously beautiful. Surely, these things don't hurt, but they were never the heart of the matter. Decades later, but never too late, Carrie finally got the ending she and her friends told us to believe in.
