Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, reported earning more than 100 million from the entity that owns his stake in World Liberty Financial, according to a new financial disclosure (on.wsj.com)
An Anthropic researcher is quitting the artificial-intelligence industry over fears that the lab and its competitors are racing to build systems they won’t be able to control (on.wsj.com)
In “The Sun Never Sets,” Joe Swanberg Strips Romance to Its Bones - The filmmaker’s first feature in six years turns a love triangle in Anchorage into a philosophical experiment. (www.newyorker.com)
Remembrance of September 11th - It became immediately evident that this was terrorism on an unexampled scale. The twentieth century had ended, and the twenty-first had begun. (www.newyorker.com)
Some Legacy Sequels We Hope Are Never Made - But if you’re reading this and want to green-light one, please don’t hesitate to be in touch. (www.newyorker.com)
Can You Write a Memoir in the Third Person? - In Brian Dillon’s bewitching new book, “Ambivalence: An Education,” the author’s younger self is depicted as an inscrutable, fumbling figure named B. (www.newyorker.com)
Flock Wants a Closely Surveilled World with No Exit - The company, which has a hundred and thirty thousand cameras monitoring the streets of the U.S., frames privacy as a worthwhile trade-off for safety and security, echoing the language of the post-9/11 surveillance boom. (www.newyorker.com)
Can East Germany’s Cold War History Explain the Rise of the AfD? - After winning a state election this past weekend, the German far right is closer to power than it has been in decades. (www.newyorker.com)
The Warning Benjamin Netanyahu Ignored - New reporting from Haaretz shows that, before October 7th, the Israeli Prime Minister was told to expect an “earthquake” from Gaza—and didn’t tell his security chiefs. (www.newyorker.com)
Danny McBride’s Solution to the Masculinity Crisis - In a new story collection, the actor and comedian injects a refreshing breeziness into a discourse that can lean toward self-seriousness. (www.newyorker.com)
“The Journey,” a Five-Part Audio Investigation from The New Yorker - Why did a mysterious couple collect babies in a Los Angeles mansion? Examining a scandal that threatens to undermine the surrogacy industry. (www.newyorker.com)
Destroying Books to Build a Mind - Anthropic is trying to “destructively scan all the books in the world.” How worried should we be? (www.newyorker.com)
The Death of Shame Is Tearing Us Apart - Increasingly, people are ignoring social norms in favor of a narrow self-interest. The results are disastrous. (www.newyorker.com)
Instructions for Watching My Girlfriend While I’m Out of Town - Make sure that water is always available to Blythe, but don’t freak out if she doesn’t drink much. Blythe believes that hydration is “a conspiracy invented by Gatorade.” (www.newyorker.com)
“Paranormal Activity” Creeps Onto Broadway - Oren Peli, the creator of the original horror-film series, stops by the new stage production and dishes on the creaky house that spooked—and inspired—him back in 2005. (www.newyorker.com)
Gloria Steinem Gave It All - The feminist icon understood that you may spend your whole life walking toward a world you will never enter, but that does not relieve you of the obligation to walk. (www.newyorker.com)
Saudi Arabia’s Pursuit of Michelin Stardom - The kingdom, seeking to rebrand as a culinary juggernaut, has bankrolled new restaurants and conscripted big-name chefs. Will it succeed? (www.newyorker.com)
How Hermès Unharnessed Fashion - Under the stewardship of Nadège Vanhée, the artistic director of women’s wear, a house known for craftsmanship is exploring the risqué. (www.newyorker.com)
Willem de Kooning’s Excavations of Intimacy - The first major show of the artist’s drawings articulates his pain and anger and the frightful era he lived in. (www.newyorker.com)
What Carla Lalli Cooked After Her Divorce - With “Food Is a Feeling,” the cookbook author joins a lineage of writers who have explored the appetites of the newly unmarried. (www.newyorker.com)
The Prolific Storytelling of This Is Lorelei - Nate Amos writes songs that both embrace and lampoon dusty singer-songwriter tropes. (www.newyorker.com)