It’s Thursday, October 15. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Why are so many men without college degrees single? Anthony Scaramucci on whether Katie Zacharia will last. Rupa Subramanya on the new debanking revelations. And much more.
But first: Is Sally Rooney being censored?
Yesterday, best-selling Irish novelist Sally Rooney announced that her publisher is pulling her books from British stores. Within hours, critics moved to denounce the decision as an egregious example of censorship. “Writers should not find their books disappearing from shelves because of their political beliefs,” warned the head of Amnesty International UK.
But are Rooney’s beliefs really the problem?
Not quite, writes Eli Lake. Last year, when Britain designated the anti-Israel group Palestine Action a terrorist organization, Rooney responded by pledging to give the group a share of her royalties. Funding a banned group is a crime under British law, so her publisher decided it couldn’t keep selling her books without risking prosecution.
The question, then, Eli argues, is “not whether Rooney has been censored (she hasn’t).” It is whether Britain was right to designate Palestine Action a terrorist organization in the first place. Read Eli’s column on why those who seek to turn Rooney into a free speech martyr are missing the point—and what’s really at stake in this case.
—The Editors
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THE NEWS
The U.S. may have deliberately held back warnings of a Russian missile barrage on Ukraine this week, after American officials blamed “bad weather” for a detection failure. The strikes killed six people and knocked out power for about 600,000 people, though President Trump insists the U.S. is still sharing intelligence with Kyiv.
Pope Leo XIV is walking around his hospital room and eating normally as he recovers from lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said yesterday. The 71-year-old was diagnosed after doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung Tuesday, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be well enough for his South America trip next month.
Taiwan said Wednesday it plans to purchase 6 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas each year once a proposed Alaska pipeline project begins operating, and could invest up to $4.4 billion in the project—a deal President Trump called one of the biggest ever at a rally in Alaska. Deliveries would begin in 2032 at the earliest.
With midterm elections less than three weeks away, President Trump hit the campaign trail yesterday, rallying voters in Arizona behind Rep. Andy Biggs’ run for governor in Arizona before flying to Montana to boost a GOP House candidate. “I’m not running, but I feel that I’m running,” he told reporters, saying he’s worried a Democratic Congress would dismantle what his administration has built.
Annual inflation climbed to 3.7 percent in September from 3.4 percent in August, driven largely by a 9 percent monthly jump in gas prices tied to the Iran war, the Labor Department said yesterday. It’s the final major inflation reading before the midterms.
South Carolina authorities on Wednesday charged Rep. Nancy Mace’s former fiancé, Patrick Bryant, and two business associates in connection with a 2018 sexual assault that Mace described on the House floor last year. Investigators allege one man assaulted and incapacitated a woman while Bryant and the other associate watched. Bryant has denied the allegations.
For the first time in more than 25 years, Americans can buy sunscreen made with a newly approved ingredient: bemotrizinol. Long common in Europe, it blocks both types of UV rays that can damage the skin and it doesn’t leave a white cast.
After more than a month on the loose in Yellowstone National Park, Luna the Jack Russell terrier is finally headed home. The 10-year-old dog escaped her family’s cabin in September and evaded rescuers, until a volunteer caught her yesterday using a trap baited with her owners’ old clothes.
