A Sensualist’s History of Gay Marriage and Immigration

A Sensualist’s History of Gay Marriage and Immigration

There is a profuse longing for the foreseen. At least since the pandemic, I have seen some version of the statement “I could really use some precedented times.” The joke is so-so, resting upon a neologism that wryly riffs on an adjective recurrent within so much American news media these days: the unprecedented funding of…

Read More

Which airlines still fly over Iran and Yemen?

Which airlines still fly over Iran and Yemen?

Despite the threats, some airlines continue to schedule flights through the airspaces of Iran, Iraq, and Yemen—regions with significant risks of missile fire and terrorist attacks. A considerable number of airlines continue operating over Iran, Iraq, and Yemen, a Maariv investigation revealed, while most Western and North American airlines consistently avoid flying in these regions…

Read More

Al Jazeera condemns Israeli incitement against Gaza reporter Anas al-Sharif

Al Jazeera condemns Israeli incitement against Gaza reporter Anas al-Sharif

Al Jazeera Media Network has denounced the Israeli military for what it called a “campaign of incitement” against its reporters in the Gaza Strip, including most notably Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Anas al-Sharif. In a statement on Friday, Al Jazeera said it “strongly condemns and denounces these relentless efforts, which have consistently incited against its…

Read More

“South Park” Skewers a Satire-Proof President

“South Park” Skewers a Satire-Proof President

There’s a legal strategy known as the small-penis rule, wherein an author who writes a character based on a real person can potentially evade a libel suit by giving said character a small penis—the logic being that, in order to sue, a plaintiff would have to tacitly admit that the description of his manhood is…

Read More

Cocoa Prices Jump on Dry Weather Concerns for West Africa

Cocoa Prices Jump on Dry Weather Concerns for West Africa

Bar of chocolate by Karandaev via iStock September ICE NY cocoa (CCU25) today is up +198 (+2.44%), and September ICE London cocoa #7 (CAU25) is up +125 (+2.34%). Cocoa prices today are sharply higher due to concerns about dry weather in West Africa.  According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, rainfall in the…

Read More

Laurie Jalloul is Creating a New Language of Luxury

Laurie Jalloul is Creating a New Language of Luxury

In a world of fashion that often celebrates noise, speed, and spectacle, Laurie Jalloul has built her legacy through something far more enduring: quiet power. The French Lebanese designer is the founder and creative director of the couture label Laurie Jalloul, a name that is steadily becoming synonymous with timeless elegance and deeply personal craftsmanship.…

Read More

Former MP Mhairi Black announces she has left the SNP

Former MP Mhairi Black announces she has left the SNP

Former SNP MP Mhairi Black has left the party – predominantly over its stance on trans rights and Palestine. Black, who was formerly the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, said there had been “too many times” when she did not agree with decisions made by the party. Speaking to The Herald newspaper, she said the…

Read More

Williams in Williamstown

Williams in Williamstown

On the last day of the first weekend of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, a brief storm struck. We had gone into the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, on Williams College’s campus, for a matinée of “Camino Real”—a rare revival of Tennessee Williams’s oddest play, from 1953—under a lid of hot gray clouds; we emerged…

Read More