It’s Monday, February 16. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Marco Rubio’s wake-up call to Europe. The shifting debate over youth gender medicine. Why you may no longer be the smartest type of thing on earth. And much more.
But first: Is the Epstein story spiraling out of control?
All the Epstein files have been released. That was what Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche said in a letter to Congress on Saturday. The list of names caught up in the Epstein story is long. Some have suffered embarrassment; others have faced far more serious consequences. And while many are getting their long overdue just deserts, is that true of everyone embroiled in the saga?
No, says Joe Nocera, who, in his essay for The Free Press today, argues that the Epstein fallout is spiraling out of control.
Consider the case of Casey Wasserman. On Friday, the Hollywood mega-agent and chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee put his agency up for sale. Why? Because his clients had been fleeing in recent days after he became part of the Epstein story. But there’s no evidence to suggest Wasserman had anything to do with Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell after their criminal conduct came to light. The story, Joe argues, is “a big, fat nothingburger.” And it is far from the only example of “guilt by association” in the Epstein saga.
Has the righteous hunt for justice for Epstein and his enablers descended into something else? Read Joe on how “distinctions between the truly culpable and those who are merely bystanders are being lost in the lust to point fingers.”
—The Editors
The Trump administration isn’t exactly popular in Europe, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio pulled off what Eli Lake calls a “minor diplomatic miracle” at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Even after sharply criticizing Europe’s failures and urging the continent to undertake a “political and cultural reset,” he was met with a standing ovation. Why? Because, Eli writes, “the bitter truth for Europe is that they are out of options.”
In just a few years, the consensus around pediatric transgender medicine has transformed, thanks in part to those who questioned it before it was popular to do so. Whistleblower Jamie Reed, journalist Jesse Singal, and Free Press senior editor Emily Yoffe join Rafaela Siewert to discuss how they challenged a once-dominant orthodoxy, the backlash they endured, and how the broader debate over medical transition for minors will continue to evolve.
We are at a remarkable moment in human history. For as long as humankind has existed, we have been the most intelligent thing on the planet. But at some point in the next year or two, that will no longer be true. In fact, it might no longer be true right now, writes Noah Smith in a piece making sense of the extraordinary recent advances in AI. As of now, there are still some things that humans can do better than artificial intelligence. What will it mean when we are no longer in the driver’s seat of the universe?
On this episode of Conversations with Coleman, Coleman Hughes sits down with Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman to discuss “moral ambition,” and whether our culture nudges talented people toward prestige instead of solving real problems. From the legacy of abolition to the case for universal basic income, they examine what it truly means to aim high, and do good, with your life.
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The investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie has entered its third week with no arrests, as the FBI awaits DNA results from gloves that “appear to match those worn by a masked person outside her front door in Tucson the night she vanished.” Investigators are treating the case as a kidnapping, asking nearby residents for surveillance footage while analyzing blood and other DNA evidence linked to the scene.
A $5.8 billion Ford-backed battery plant in Kentucky has been idled just months after opening, leaving 1,600 workers unemployed, with the company citing slowing EV demand amid Trump’s elimination of EV tax credits. Governor Andy Beshear blamed the president, saying, “Those are 1,600 Kentuckians that lost their jobs solely because of Donald Trump pushing that big, ugly bill.”
Iran says energy, mining, and aircraft deals are being discussed as part of renewed nuclear negotiations with the U.S., signaling flexibility on its nuclear program while insisting that any agreement must deliver “economic benefits for both sides.” Talks are set to continue in Geneva amid rising military tensions, with Washington favoring diplomacy but preparing for military escalation if negotiations fail.
Former president Barack Obama said on a podcast with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cowen that aliens are “real, but I haven’t seen them.” While he did not clarify what he meant, he dismissed long-running conspiracy theories in a subsequent statement, saying there’s no hidden alien facility, “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
Between one and three inches of snow are expected to hit the New York City area Sunday evening through Monday morning, as the eastern U.S. has seen one of the most frigid seasons in recent memory. On the other coast, two powerful Pacific storms are expected to slam California starting Sunday night, bringing days of heavy snowfall, strong winds, flooding risks, and up to eight feet of snow in the mountains.
The United States currently ranks third in the Olympic standings with 17 total medals—5 gold, 8 silver, and 4 bronze—as the Winter Games enters its second and final week. Norway leads the medal table with 26 medals, followed by Italy with 22.
Can all of the FP and the commenters stop using the term "do better?" Get a thesaurus. Sheesh.
Why would anyone be surprised to learn Harvard gives A’s for participation rather than performance? No more surprised that when the government stops paying people to participate in a bad policy like subsidizing electric vehicles we didn’t ask for, the people stop buying them. And the Epstein file saga continues to prove no one is after justice for the victims, only gossip to embarrass anyone whose name appears. Cancel culture isn’t dead.