It’s Monday, December 22. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: A new lawsuit paints social media firms as the new Big Tobacco. Maya Sulkin and Frannie Block have the shocking details. Plus: Trump warms up to legal weed, a history of tough Jews, Coleman Hughes’s end-of-year AMA, Free Pressers react to a viral essay about anti-white discrimination. And much more.
But first: the former president with some explaining to do.
The Justice Department on Friday released a large batch of its “Epstein files”: thousands of letters, receipts, and photos it gathered during years of investigations into the monstrous sex trafficker. The release, which was heavily redacted, didn’t confirm any of the wilder theories about Epstein. But the images leave plenty of powerful men with questions to answer, and none more than Bill Clinton.
One photo shows the former president on what appears to be a private jet with a blond woman sitting on the arm of his chair. Another shows him with Michael Jackson. In the most damning image in the release, Clinton is seen sinking into a hot tub with a young woman whose face is redacted.
Pressure is on the former president to explain what he was up to. But as Free Press columnist Eli Lake explains, the release of the photos broke a historic norm. The Justice Department generally doesn’t publicize information about people it hasn’t charged with crimes, but Congress forced the agency’s hand in this case. That means the scandal may spread with little justice to show for it. Don’t miss Eli’s latest on the former president who has some explaining to do, and the legal and political tangle surrounding Clinton, Donald Trump, and the Epstein files’ release.
—Mene Ukueberuwa
The firms behind TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms knowingly fueled a mental health crisis. That’s the claim in a sprawling lawsuit, featuring revealing internal documents. Maya Sulkin and Frannie Block report on the most jaw-dropping claims in a potentially seismic legal showdown on one of the biggest issues of our time.
For days after the Brown University shooting, the university community was left in the dark by authorities. Into the vacuum flooded fear, frustration, and unfounded theories about the alleged killer’s identity. Recent Brown grad Jillian Lederman argues that, in the midst of tragedy at her old school, “We failed more tests than we passed.”
In maybe the most viral essay of 2025, the writer Jacob Savage argued last week that the excesses of wokeness created a “lost generation” of white millennial men, who were shut out of elite spaces in the name of DEI. Is he right, and what should be done about it? Free Press contributors, including Ben Shapiro and Elliot Ackerman, react.
Every Hanukkah, Jews retell the story of the Maccabees, ancient heroes who wrested control of Jerusalem from the Greeks. The story has echoes in a forgotten thread of American history: the Jewish patriots who helped found the new republic. On the conclusion of Hanukkah, and with America’s 250th birthday drawing closer, their story is the perfect antidote to today’s resurgent antisemitism, writes Roya Hakakian.
On Thursday, President Trump instructed his administration to quickly reschedule marijuana, reclassifying it as a low-risk drug. The change, which is the culmination of months of intense lobbying by cannabis companies, is expected to supercharge the marijuana industry’s profits. Anti-weed lawmakers, including loyal allies of the president, are not happy about it, reports Tanner Nau.
In this final 2025 episode, Coleman answers subscriber questions about everything from Trump and the attention economy to psychedelics, religion, and kids. To listen to this bonus episode, become a paid subscriber to The Free Press today.
On Breaking History: A History of Tough Jews
Last week’s attack in Sydney was only the latest example that we’re once again living in an era when Jews cannot rely on Western governments to protect them. On the latest episode of Breaking History, Eli Lake takes us back to another period when that was true: 1930s America. As Nazi sympathizers rallied in the open and police often stood idly, Jewish gangsters led by Meyer Lansky took matters into their own hands, establishing a tradition of Jewish self-defense that is often forgotten today. Listen to this episode by hitting the play button below, and be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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Thousands of mourners gathered at Bondi Beach Sunday night to honor the victims of last week’s attack that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration. “This has to be the moment when light starts to eclipse the darkness,” Australian Jewish community leader David Ossip told the crowd, which exceeded over 10,000 attendees.
The U.S. is pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, the third in the last two weeks. The tanker was “part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” a U.S. official said.
Israeli officials will brief President Trump on options for new strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program when Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at Mar-a-Lago later this month. Israel believes Iran is expanding and rebuilding its capabilities after the U.S. and Israel bombed Iranian facilities in June.
Rapper Nicki Minaj made a surprise appearance at Turning Points USA’s annual AmericaFest conference on Sunday. In a Q and A with Erika Kirk, she urged California governor Gavin Newsom not to run for president, and instead “get on the nearest Jet Ski and let that beautiful hair blow in the wind. It will make you happier than this race that you will not win.”
Nine people died after a group of gunmen carried out a shooting at a South African pub during the early hours of Sunday. The shooting occurred in Bekkersdal, a town about 30 miles west of Johannesburg. Approximately 12 suspects, who opened fire from a van into the pub, still remain at large.
The homeless man credited for cracking the Brown University shooting case “is being taken care of at the federal level . . . in a hotel, being fed.” The man, referred to as “John,” identified the alleged gunman’s car and posted the information on Reddit. Providence’s mayor urged the FBI to issue John the entirety of the $50,000 reward promised for informants in the case.
This op-ed article aged REALLY well.
That mindset and attitude comes from what was once an archaic law that entrapped my neighbors son. He was dating girl in high school for three years. Her parents disapproved. She was 7 months younger than him. She became pregnant when he was 18 years and 4 months old. Parents pressed charges and ruined the young man’s life. Now he’s on the registry as a child sex offender. I’d say that’s a bit unfair