It’s Tuesday, 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: A harrowing new report on the full scope of Hamas’s sexual violence on October 7. Arthur Brooks on what’s making us miserable. Anduril president Christian Brose on what the Iran war has revealed about American power. And much more.
But first: Tyler Cowen on the ideology that dethroned wokeism—and why it’s scarier.
In 2022, Tyler Cowen wrote an influential essay arguing that wokeness had peaked. At the time, it was a controversial claim. The cancellations hadn’t exactly stopped. Corporate boards were still pushing DEI policies.
We asked Tyler to revisit his claim four years on. Did he call the turning of the tide at the right time? And what has followed the period now remembered as “peak woke”? In his column today, he dives into all of that, and comes to a disturbing conclusion for anyone who might have thought that the ebbing wokeness meant a return to more moderate politics.
Read Tyler on what replaced wokeness, and why—from billionaire taxes to a new culture of assassinations—the “social energies of the American left have moved away from the realm of speech and into plans for concrete action.”
—The Editors
What I Learned Cataloging the Sexual Violence of October 7
Yesterday we published an important essay by federal judge Roy K. Altman. In it, he detailed the many faults in the controversial Nicholas Kristof op-ed in The New York Times alleging systemic sexual violence in Israeli prisons, and brought new details to light that cast doubt on some of Kristof’s most explosive claims. If you missed Judge Altman’s piece, read it here.
One of Judge Altman’s complaints about Kristof’s op-ed is the timing of its publication, just a day before a landmark report detailing the sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. The effect of Kristof’s column, whether deliberate or not, was to overshadow these important findings.
We invited the principal author of that report, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, to explain in our pages what she discovered in the two years she spent meticulously cataloging the full scope of that day’s atrocities and how the sexual violence committed “was not incidental nor borne of the chaos” of that day, but rather “was part of the plan.”
The saddest segments of the world’s population have one big thing in common: They all speak English. Is it the smartphones? The algorithm? It’s not quite that simple, argues Arthur Brooks. Today, he digs into new data on world happiness, and explores why our Latin American and Asian counterparts are more content than we are.
It’s the political gamble Democrats can’t quit—and the one voters keep rejecting. Court-packing has become a litmus test inside the party, even as it polls as a loser outside it. Jed Rubenfeld digs into why Democrats keep coming back to the pack, what Kamala Harris’s recent endorsement of it signals, and how the move could backfire ahead of the 2028 election.
What has the Iran war revealed about American military power? In this episode of School of War, Aaron MacLean sits down with Christian Brose—president of Anduril Industries and one of the best positioned to answer that question. Listen to their conversation and hear Brose assess how the war has gone so far, where defense innovation is actually headed, and where it’s falling behind.
Al data centers shouldn’t raise your bills
Anthropic will cover electricity price increases from its data centers and invest in grid optimization tools, helping keep prices lower for ratepayers.
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
THE NEWS
Three people were killed by two teenage gunmen at a San Diego mosque Monday. The two suspects were later found in their car, dead by suicide. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime. A law enforcement source told the Los Angeles Times that anti-Islamic writings were found inside the gunmen’s vehicle.
The workers powering the country’s busiest commuter rail line walked off the job Saturday, having gone without a pay increase since 2022. Monday’s commute into and out of New York City was severely disrupted for more than a quarter-million riders as a result.
The national average price of gasoline has surged 56 percent to roughly $4.52 per gallon since the U.S. struck Iran in late February. That’s up from $2.89 at the start of the year, representing one of the sharpest fuel price spikes in recent memory.
A New York state judge ruled that several items recovered from suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione’s backpack—including his phone, passport, wallet, an ammunition magazine, and a computer chip—cannot be used as evidence in his murder trial. A journal and a gun found in the same bag were deemed admissible, according to the judge.
Cuba has denied reports that the country has stockpiled more than 300 attack drones to use against U.S. targets, accusing President Trump of fabricating a case for war. The claims, first reported by Axios, suggested the drones—given to the country by Russia and Iran—could be aimed at targets including Guantanamo Bay, American warships, and Key West, which sits just 90 miles from Cuba’s northern coast.
A coalition of more than 60 Trump allies, including Steve Bannon and conservative anti-AI activists Amy Kremer and Brendan Steinhauser, sent a letter urging the president to require testing and approval of powerful AI models before their public release. (For more on the broader debate over AI oversight, read Josh Code’s piece, “Who Should Control AI’s Most Dangerous Secrets?”)
An Oakland jury rejected Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI on the grounds that he had waited too long to file, ruling the case fell outside the statute of limitations. Musk, who plans to appeal the decision, had alleged that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman steered the company away from its original nonprofit, human-centered mission in favor of commercial interests.
The Trump administration dropped its $10 billion IRS lawsuit yesterday in exchange for a $1.8 billion taxpayer-backed fund to compensate people who claim they were politically targeted by the Biden Justice Department. The administration’s decision to settle appeared designed to sidestep a judge’s pointed questions about how Trump could legally sue an agency he now controls as president.
The singer Shakira has been acquitted of tax fraud in Spain and will receive 55 million euros (plus interest) in repayments, the country’s national court announced yesterday. The case, which is more than a decade old, hinged upon allegations that the Colombian singer was legally a resident of Spain in 2011 and owed taxes to the country’s government for that year.
Al data centers shouldn’t raise your bills
Anthropic will cover electricity price increases from its data centers and invest in grid optimization tools, helping keep prices lower for ratepayers.
"The national average price of gasoline has surged 56 percent to roughly $4.52 per gallon since the U.S. struck Iran in late February. That’s up from $2.89 at the start of the year, representing one of the sharpest fuel price spikes in recent memory."
Have we forgotten the Dullard from Delaware™ so soon?
Wokeness has morphed into alarm and desperation. Envy, entitlement and resentment fuel “something worse”. The times have become unsettling if not potentially dangerous. The ends justify any means and extremes seek the cause. AI, Israel, the Jews, individuality, capitalism; you name it. For the party out of power retrieving “Power” has become an absolute. They literally talk out loud of overthrowing our Republic to establish a “Majoritarian “ one party rule. Not all history suggests “they” will survive. Of course “they” all believe “ they” will. Jacobin times may be upon us. Beware of the new Robespierre.