The Free Press

Dara Horn’s book People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present examines how contemporary culture sentimentalizes Jewish suffering while ignoring Jewish life. Her new book, provocatively titled The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living, picks up where that one left off, with an answer she says took her years to arrive…

In a corner of Cuba, a group of men are dying of old age. Their beards have grayed. Their eyesight is dimming. They are the men who organized, planned, financed, and facilitated the 9/11 attacks. After a quarter of a century, they have still not faced justice.

Throughout all of the recent 25th anniversary events, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and his colleagues were barely mentioned. That may be because acknowledging their presence should remind us all of the terrible inadequacy of our legal systems in the West to bring our terrorist enemies to justice.

Like many other people, I used to spend considerable amounts of time following the progress of the dozens of al-Qaeda detainees originally held in an American military prison in Guantanamo Bay. The first of them were brought into what was then called Camp X-Ray in 2002. The first images released of the prisoners, shackled and in orange jumpsuits, caused a significant backlash in public opinion as audiences recoiled at their sometimes harsh treatment. But the U.S. could have quickly overcome any unease about these detentions if the terrorists had swiftly faced the full force of American justice. The families of their victims were promised that they would live to see that resolution. But after 25 years and five presidential administrations in Washington, most of the accused are still—unbelievably—in the pretrial phase.

The judges who were overseeing the cases have retired and been replaced. The admirable Mark Martins—brigadier general and original chief prosecutor—put off his retirement multiple times to give the 9/11 families justice. But there were so very many forces beyond his control obstructing his ability to get the job done, and the years took their toll on him, too. He finally retired in 2021 and has been replaced as well.

There are many causes for this lamentable situation. And if America and her allies are going to be fit for the challenges of the 21st century, we must learn lessons from this failure.

Most Americans have likely never heard of MyFundAction or the Islamic University of Minnesota. But for anyone worried about the spread of radical Islam in the United States, they serve as important case studies. According to two new reports from open-source research firm ColEven, both entities are engaged in a kind of subterfuge. They present themselves as nonprofits, taking advantage of the tax-exempt status afforded to charities and universities, while seeking to advance the ideological mission of terrorist groups like Hamas, the reports say.

Let’s start with MyFundAction, a Malaysia-based nonprofit that routinely hosts events and fundraisers in partnership with Muslim student associations in California. The organization’s own website describes itself as a youth-run nonprofit that provides education, food, medical relief, and financial support to the poor. The group hosts informal coffee chats and potluck dinners featuring MyFundAction speakers. In December, MyFundAction’s American branch received its tax-exempt status in the United States.

And yet, the group has a track record of unabashed support for Hamas.

On September 15, I spent the day in a ballroom in a D.C. Marriott because I didn’t want to miss the chance to see Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon in the same place, for the same reason, and on the same side. I might die before I see something like this again—possibly at the hands of artificial intelligence, according to the people who were gathered there, at the 2026 “Pro-Human Assembly.”

The conference comes just one week after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon made international headlines by announcing that he was leaving the AI industry over fears that it would cause human extinction. Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s “alignment science” lead, responded to Coxon’s resignation letter on X by confirming that he believes there’s a “>10%” chance artificial intelligence will kill us all in the next decade. Since then, the news has been dominated by headlines about the various terrifying claims AI experts are making about its power to usher in the apocalypse, and what—or whether—we should do anything about it. Days later, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei appeared to endorse the concerns, announcing that the company he co-founded would be slowing down development and prioritizing safety because we need to “pace the frontier.”

So this conference—presciently planned by the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit founded in 2014 to study the existential threats of technology—arrived at the perfect time. And it assembled a bizarrely eclectic coalition. Not just Steve Bannon, Trump’s bombastic former adviser, and democratic socialist senator Bernie Sanders, but total wild cards like Salvatore Cordileone, the Archbishop of San Francisco, and the actress Ashley Judd, who used part of her time onstage to paraphrase a graphic Andrea Dworkin quote about pornography.

I went with the brief to figure out what unites these people, but I think the answer is obvious: They’re afraid. People in the industry have talked openly about the possibility of this technology causing human extinction for years, but it hits differently these days. Several weeks ago, approximately 1,200 experimental AI agents went rogue and secretly conspired with one another to bust out of a virtual training environment operated by OpenAI, gain access to the open internet, and hack Hugging Face, another AI company. It was the first highly publicized incident of bots breaking free and collaborating to cause havoc, and it raised important questions: If AI agents are willing to commit a federal cybercrime behind their creators’ backs, what’s to stop them from doing something worse? What can be done to stop them? Not just in this country, but in China too?

The people at this conference debated these questions. But they all agreed on one thing: The future ought to remain in human hands, and if we carry on like this, it won’t be.

NAZA, a documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on September 10, won the Special Jury Prize, and reportedly received a record 25-minute standing ovation.

It has also generated a political uproar in Israel.

The title is an Israeli military acronym derived from nezek agavi, Hebrew for collateral damage. It refers to the filmmakers’ conviction that the systems Israel used to select targets and authorize strikes in Gaza enabled immoral and unlawfully high rates of civilian casualties. Their allegation goes beyond excessive tolerance of civilian casualties: They reportedly contend that the killing was intentional.

I haven’t seen the film. This means I cannot confidently assess its editing, corroboration, or the full testimony it presents. I would love to live in a world in which I could wait, watch the movie, and have a sober debate about its claims. Unfortunately, the discourse online is not so patient. That’s why it’s necessary to examine the argument its makers have published, the reporting on which it builds, and the standards by which its allegations should be judged. The film falls short on every dimension.

Start with the question of civilian casualties. The online conversation about the film—as distinct from the film’s own claims—is replete with shock and horror at the finding that the IDF calculated the estimated number of civilian deaths before each strike. According to the usual Israel critics, this shows that the resulting deaths amounted to deliberate murder.

The first time I heard Macklemore, it was in a sweaty college bar with cheap drinks and a bad sound system. This was in 2012; I had just started university and Macklemore’s first—and, arguably, only—big hit, “Thrift Shop,” was ubiquitous. It was drummed into me everywhere and anywhere. I didn’t care for it, particularly. I cared for it even less when, the following year, Macklemore was performing the song onstage while invoking Jewish stereotypes by wearing a fake nose that would make Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein blush. And I cared least of all when he apologized, said he hadn’t meant it, and added a link to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to his website.

In the 14 years since I was first subjected to his music, Macklemore hasn’t done anything culturally significant. But a few years ago the rapper, who does his best every day to stretch the definition of rap to its breaking point, worked out that his path to continued relevancy lay not in music but social activism. Since October 7, like many in the music industry, Macklemore has discovered the Palestinian cause, and thrown his whole self into it.

In 2024, for example, he wrote a song dedicated to the violent protesters at Columbia University titled “Hind’s Hall,” which included such profound lyrics as: “I learned a lesson from Cube and Eazy-E. What was it again? Oh yeah, fuck the police.” That same year, while speaking at a pro-Palestinian event, he got a little carried away and shouted, “Fuck America.”

And last week, while opening for Ed Sheeran on a U.S. tour, Macklemore opened with a “Free Palestine” speech. Some people were outraged and launched a petition, calling for his removal from the remaining dates of Sheeran’s stadium tour. Over the weekend, the noise grew and Robert Kraft, well-meaning antisemitism activist and owner of the New England Patriots, rallied a group of NFL owners to block Macklemore from performing at their stadiums. “Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25 and 26 concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line,” wrote Kraft.

It’s Wednesday, September 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: Elliot Ackerman on the day he was almost hit by a Russian drone strike. Will Rahn’s dispatch from a 9/11 truther conference. Jed Rubenfeld on whether or not AI companies are responsible for their agents’ crimes. And much more.

But first: You or someone you know may be suffering from Sydney Sweeney Derangement Syndrome.

Yesterday morning, in Times Square, I saw a suited man come close to death because his eyes were transfixed on Sydney Sweeney’s bare ass.

I was waiting to cross 41st Street. He had not noticed the big, red, glowing hand that tells responsible pedestrians to wait. Instead of looking ahead, he was gazing up at a huge billboard filled with Ms. Sweeney’s latest advertising campaign, in which she poses fully naked with, among other sporting paraphernalia, a wide range of balls.

The black SUV missed him by about seven inches.

If it had hit him, perhaps the internet would be justified in dragging Sydney Sweeney for taking her clothes off to promote the sports betting website Novig. The actress would have blood on her hands! As it is, her critics are accusing her not of manslaughter but the altogether more complex crime of “sexualizing women in sport.”

This, writes Caitlin Flanagan in her piece today, makes no sense. Sweeney isn’t selling sports, she’s selling sports betting; and she’s sexualizing herself, not a sportswoman. (No offense, Sydney.) It didn’t make a lot of sense, either, when people accused her of racism for starring in an American Eagle ad with the tagline: “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans.”

Where’s the fury coming from? There are two reasons, writes Caitlin. The first is about Sweeney. “She has an imperious control of male desire. A woman like that is always going to unsettle the atmosphere, rile women with her power.” The second is about the way the world treats women’s sports—as a bit of a sideshow.

Will Novig regret this? The “good jeans” ad gave American Eagle’s stock a healthy bump. But more importantly: Sports betting sites are overwhelmingly used by men. Does this new ad appeal to them? Let’s just say that if that man had died in Times Square yesterday morning, gazing at Ms. Sweeney’s magnificent rump, well, judging from his expression he’d have died happy.

—Freya Sanders

• Nick Reiner will not face the death penalty if a jury finds him guilty of the murder of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, prosecutors said Tuesday. The prosecution made the decision based on a “rigorous review” of the circumstances, and conversations with his two siblings.

• Trump cannot put his name back on the Kennedy Center, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, marking the latest blow to the president’s efforts to transform the D.C. cultural landmark. The moves denied by the judge included an inscription on the facade that would have read “renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump” as well as a bid to rename the venue’s surrounding grounds after him.

• Just over half of American voters hold an unfavorable view of socialism, according to a new poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena University. The same poll also found voters trust Republicans slightly more than they trust Democrats to handle AI, which promises to be an influential issue in the November midterm elections.

• Trump issued harsh criticism of the Supreme Court on Tuesday after the justices ruled against part of his executive order restricting mail-in ballots in the 2026 midterm elections. “This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years,” the president wrote on TruthSocial.

• The Iran war had cost the U.S. over $33 billion as of mid-June, according to a report from the U.S. military’s inspector general. President Trump expressed willingness on Monday to resume direct negotiations with Iran, saying he would make the call on “whether or not the USA will choose to engage—the concept of which we are open to.”

• The FBI recently thwarted an ISIS-inspired “mass casualty attack” with the arrest of a 21-year-old man in Pennsylvania, officials said on Tuesday. The suspect, Jonathan Kramer, was arrested with a rifle, bullets, and dozens of knives in his possession and “made repeated attempts to encourage and coordinate violence through encrypted platforms,” according to law enforcement.

I have Wi-Fi. I have a human heart. Of course I fired up the 60-second spot for Novig, a sports betting company. I was drawn not by the pulchritude of Sydney Sweeney, although that is undeniable, but by the many accounts of female athletes being enraged by the ad. I myself can’t catch a wiffle ball on an airless day, but I was born before Title IX, in the time when girls were allowed to follow their interests and make something of themselves. Still, I wanted to see what the commotion was about. By the end of the ad, I wondered if I’d found the wrong one because the ad I saw didn’t concern women athletes in any remote way.

It’s a sleek ad featuring the world’s sexiest woman saying the word sports over and over again, and if that isn’t an inducement to the average online sports bettor (overwhelmingly young and male), nothing is. I knew that the ad was stirring up something powerful because of the moralizing terms with which the press described Sweeney’s appearance in the ad. Variety called the ad “risqué,” ESPN said the star wore “little or no clothing,” and many outlets described her as “nearly nude.” What was this, Raquel Welch wearing a fur bikini in One Million Years B.C.?

At about 1 a.m. this past Sunday morning, I pulled into a gas station in Yahodyn, in Ukraine near the border with Poland. I was traveling with a delegation from With Honor, a group that helps elect veterans to Congress, and we were returning from a trip to the front lines in Kharkiv, in the northeast. As we piled out of the vans in which we’d spent the last 10 hours, Rye Barcott, the founder of With Honor and an old friend from the Marines, noticed a gaggle of Ukrainian teens drinking and smoking in the parking lot. He said it was good to see young people enjoying themselves, but wondered if they would be conscripted soon. Oleksandra Ustinova, a Ukrainian member of parliament we were traveling with, told us, “They have a little time,” and explained that conscription comes at age 25.

We grabbed drinks and snacks, used the restroom, and then piled back into our vans to cross the border back to Poland. Ten minutes later, air raid warnings lit up our phones, an unlikely occurrence this far west. Then, a Russian drone struck the gas station we had been at moments before. A few miles away, a second drone struck a train, narrowly missing former CIA director David Petraeus (who was at the station), and a recently departed train carrying former British prime minister Boris Johnson and Carl Bildt, the former prime minister of Sweden. No one, thankfully, was injured.

I didn’t know it yet, standing in that parking lot, but the strike was the clearest evidence I’d seen in four years of traveling to this war that something had shifted. Had the drone hurt or killed anyone, it would have had significant consequences. But Russia’s attempt wasn’t a sign of strength. Indeed, while Russia has had the advantage for most of this conflict, after this trip, I am no longer sure that remains true.

Last Friday, most Americans marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 by reflecting on a day the country came under attack from an external enemy. Meanwhile, a group of people with a very different view of that tragedy gathered in an auditorium in East Harlem to search for the enemy within. They were there for the Turning the Tide conference, a gathering of the so-called truther movement. We sent Will Rahn to meet the truthers and investigate why some refuse to accept what happened that day. Here is what he found. 
—Oliver Wiseman

“Where is the younger generation?” Roger Waters, the erstwhile Pink Floyd frontman, asked me on September 10. “Why aren’t they out in the streets in the fucking millions going, ‘This is insane!’ ”

We’re standing in the auditorium of El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem for the opening night of Turning the Tide 2026, a four-day convention of what participants call the 9/11 truth movement. The auditorium, decorated with century-old murals depicting classic tales for children—here’s Little Red Riding Hood, there’s Jack and the Beanstalk—can hold more than 500 people. But only a few dozen have come to hear this particular fairy tale, and they skew older: gray-bearded boomers, Mother Hubbards in keffiyehs.

Spry and thin at 83 years old, Waters’s leftist activism morphed into wackadoodle conspiracy long ago. His celebrity has dimmed after years of odd stunts, like when he dressed in a Nazi-esque leather uniform in Berlin during a 2023 concert, which led to an investigation by German police. That same year, a documentary called The Dark Side of Roger Waters featured a number of his former artistic collaborators accusing him of antisemitism. (He denies the claim and unsuccessfully sued the filmmakers.)