Ocean Vuong’s Way Out
The meeting of New England’s newer low-wage immigrant working class and its older industrial working class is beautifully rendered, warts and all, by Ocean Vuong in his new novel, The Emperor of Gladness.
Blog
Airline Price-Gouging Could Become the New Normal
Led by Delta, many airlines are now working with AI firms to expand the industry’s use of big data for price setting. Using new surveillance techniques, these firms exploit consumer privacy to set “personalized” prices to jack up fares.
Municipal Grocery Stores Are Sensible and Obvious
Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for city-run grocery stores is entirely practical. What’s more unrealistic, begging corporations to sacrifice profits to fulfill a necessary social role or simply providing basic urban infrastructure ourselves?
The Countless Failed Attempts to Demonize France Insoumise
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Insoumise is the biggest radical-left force in Europe. Liberal opinion seethes against all aspects of the movement — but Mélenchon’s comrades haven’t been thrown off course.
Who Gets a “Right of Return”?
The parallels between Zionists and a northern Arkansas group seeking to forbid Jews and people of color from buying adjacent tracts of land are more significant than you might think.
The Big Tech Lobby Has the DOJ in a Stranglehold
A secret lobbying effort by Hewlett Packard Enterprise has pushed Donald Trump’s Justice Department to reverse course on the tech giant’s $14 billion megamerger and led to the ouster of top department prosecutors.
Disney and NASA Keep Selling Space Travel. Nobody’s Buying.
Disney has made several big-budget films with the backing of the US government to sell space travel to a new generation. But audiences don’t seem to care.
Belgium’s Arrest of IDF Soldiers Could Be a Watershed Moment
Belgium’s detention of Israeli soldiers over alleged war crimes in Gaza has set a historic precedent for holding Israel to account for its war crimes. And it’s a sign that the tide is turning against Israel.
Sinjar: Proxy Wars on Sacred Ground
Eleven years ago today, ISIS began its genocidal assault on Iraqi Yazidis. Reporting from the Sinjar region, our correspondent shows how a fractured community finds its path to recovery hindered by geopolitics as much as by violence.
The Jeffrey Epstein Scandal Is a Stain on Both Parties
Forget partisan finger-pointing. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal cuts across party lines, indicting economic and political elites alike.
A Nazi-Era Law Still Lands Poor People in Jail in Germany
In Germany, at least 8,000 people go to jail each year for failing to pay public transit tickets. The relevant part of the criminal code was introduced under the Nazis — yet is still routinely used to imprison mostly poor non-payers.
Abundance for the 99 Percent
Abundance is the precondition of socialism, but socialism is also the precondition of abundance.