The Free Press
It’s Monday, May 19. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Tyler Cowen on the AI cheating ‘crisis.’ Meet the ‘Gavin Newsom of college presidents.’ Plus: Should you fly out of Newark?
But first: the book that’s the talk of Washington.
Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a spokesperson for the 82-year-old former president said Sunday. Even before this devastating news, Biden’s health was already in the headlines.
On Friday, Axios published the audio from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with Biden. And tomorrow sees the publication of Original Sin, the only book Washington is talking about right now. In it, CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson lift the lid on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and how those around the president tried and failed to cover it up.
You might think you know all you need to know about the scandal. Democratic politicians would certainly like to change the subject. But I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of this outrageous tale—and that a reckoning is long overdue.
Yes, Kamala Harris lost the election—in no small part thanks to the cover-up. But the people who perpetuated the lie that Biden was capable of serving as president until 2029 have gotten off astonishingly lightly. People like White House press secretary turned MSNBC primetime host Jen Psaki. Or like Biden transportation secretary and 2028 hopeful Pete Buttigieg. Or the Washington press corps, which—with a few honorable exceptions—barely touched the story of Biden’s cognitive decline until it became impossible to ignore on the debate stage last June.
So does Original Sin get us closer to the truth about what happened in the Biden White House? And who, exactly, was running the country in 2023 and 2024? Read my essay for The Free Press today and find out.
—Oliver Wiseman
Possibly as many as 90 percent of college students are using AI to cheat. To most people, this is a scandal—and a sign of the inexorable decline of American education. Tyler Cowen sees it a little differently. Read his column to understand why.
Just a few years ago, Dr. Santa Ono was “one of North America’s most vigorous champions of the whole DEI agenda.” Now, he is poised to be the next president of the University of Florida—a state where, supposedly, “woke goes to die.” Ono’s appointment has sparked a lot of pushback, but no one is quite sure what he believes—perhaps not even Ono. Read Maya Sulkin’s report on the “Gavin Newsom of college presidents” and how he might fare in Florida.
It seems hardly a day goes by without more news of air travel dysfunction these days. So what is going on? How safe is air travel? And should you avoid Newark at all costs? For answers to these questions and more, we turned to journalist and longtime pilot James Fallows.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated his inaugural mass in Vatican City on Sunday, a ceremony attended by foreign leaders, European monarchs, and global church leaders. J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio attended the mass, in which Leo called for unity and peace: “We are called to offer God’s love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person.”
Israel launched a renewed ground offensive in Gaza following stalled ceasefire negotiations in Qatar. Israeli officials confirmed that negotiators in Doha are examining a potential deal to end the war, which includes the release of all remaining hostages, the disarmament of Hamas, and the exile of its leadership. U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff was reportedly pushing for a more limited hostage and ceasefire deal on Sunday afternoon to stave off the Israeli operation.
A car bomb was detonated near a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, in what the FBI is calling “an intentional act of terrorism.” Authorities say the man responsible was Guy Edward Bartkus, who died in the explosion and was a “pro-mortalist,” meaning he opposed people being born “without their consent.” Four other people were injured.
A Mexican Navy training ship, the Cuauhtémoc, collided with the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday. Two people died and 22 were injured. The incident occurred shortly after the vessel departed from New York’s Pier 17, en route to Iceland, when the boat’s masts struck the bridge.
Russia launched one of the country’s largest drone barrages against Ukraine over the weekend, with almost 300 exploding drones targeting the capital city, Kyiv. The strikes came ahead of a planned call between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin to take place today. According to Trump, the call’s agenda includes “stopping the ‘bloodbath’ ” in Ukraine and fostering trade.
Twenty-eight people were killed and half a million were left without power as tornadoes and severe weather swept across the Midwest over the weekend. Tornadoes were reported in Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. Kentucky experienced the most severe conditions, with entire neighborhoods razed by the extreme conditions.
Newly released data revealed that Americans are ditching expensive overseas summer vacations this year, and opting instead for scaled-back, domestic trips. With consumer anxiety on the rise, spending on flights was down 11 percent in the week ending May 10 compared to the same period in 2024, and 41 percent of people surveyed said that they only planned on going away for three nights or less.
In a Paris courtroom, Kim Kardashian gave testimony about the 2016 armed robbery by the “grandpa robbers.” The aging suspects bound the reality star to a chair and robbed her of millions of dollars worth of jewelry. Nearly a decade later, Kardashian recounted the trauma—and she did it while wearing a $1.5 million necklace to court.
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