It’s Tuesday, September 29. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Joe Nocera on the problem with the Protect College Sports Act. Tyler Cowen on why AI will make you smarter—if you let it. Suzy Weiss welcomes Sydney Sweeney to the tribe (maybe). And much more.
But first: Will Trump keep his promise to Venezuela?
Last week, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient María Corina Machado attempted to do something that, in a free country, would be straightforward: return home. According to her advisers, Machado, who has been living in exile in Panama for more than a year, was denied entry to Venezuela three times in 24 hours.
Machado’s thwarted return is the latest example of how little has changed in the 10 months since the country’s longtime dictator Nicolás Maduro was nabbed by U.S. forces and Donald Trump promised “peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela.”
So far, Venezuelans have seen none of the three. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s right-hand woman turned pet of the Trump administration, is the country’s de facto ruler. There are no scheduled elections. And Trump, speaking at the UN last week, boasted about how American companies can extract the country’s oil. “To the victor belong the spoils,” he said.
In our latest editorial, we argue that this sorry state of affairs isn’t just bad for the Venezuelan people. It’s also a betrayal of American values, and doesn’t even serve U.S. interests. Read the piece on the future the Venezuelan people deserve—and why Trump should stick to the promise he made in January.
—The Editors
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Tyler Cowen: Don’t Let AI Make You Dumber |
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A critique of AI that unites the left and the right is that it will make us stupid by doing our thinking for us. Quite the contrary, writes Tyler Cowen; we may instead “see a renaissance of the human intellect.” In his latest column, he explains his thinking and probes what history teaches us about how technology and affluence—from the French impressionists to the advent of the internet—shape human creativity and intellect. | |
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Yenta Sweeney |
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If the rumors are true, Sydney Sweeney may soon convert to Judaism to marry her boyfriend, Scooter Braun. If she does convert, it would be the biggest pickup since Ruth, writes Suzy Weiss. Read Suzy’s column on why the bodacious actress will make a fine member of the tribe. | |
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Last Night, College Athletes Lost |
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The Senate last night voted to pass the Protect College Sports Act, which promises, in the words of the bill’s sponsor Ted Cruz, to “bring order to the chaos consuming the new era of college sports.” Joe Nocera sees it a little differently. He says it will deprive college athletes “of economic rights that every other citizen is entitled to in a country that claims to believe in capitalism.” Joe wrote the book on inequities in college sports. Read his piece on why the legislation is a mistake. | |
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How the Middle East Got So Screwed Up, with Simon Sebag Montefiore |
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The war in Iran is unpopular with voters, but “the Trump blockade is working,” says historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. It can be hard to parse the state of play in the Middle East amid escalating rhetoric, but history gives us the necessary perspective to call balls and strikes in the present day. Today, the author of "The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East" joins School of War to discuss the forces that created the modern Middle East, why he thinks Trump’s strategy in Iran is working, and what the future holds for the region. | |
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