The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

Issue No. 321

September 6, 2025

Hath Not a Jew Green Eyeshades?

The comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm fixture Susie Essman recalls her not-so-meet-cute with Prince Andrew at Kensington Palace

ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG

Despite the online rumors, no one should count on Trump croaking anytime soon. As Ariel Leve argues, narcissists are practically immortal

BLACK COMEDY

South Park’s tabloid shock approach remains intact in the latest season, says James Wolcott, and has picked up steam in its skewering of all things MAGA

Issue No. 320

August 30, 2025

C-SUITE AND SOUR

William Lewis survived the News of the World phone-hacking scandal unscathed—going on to be knighted, promoted to run The Wall Street Journal, and then poached by The Washington Post—until now

POETIC JUSTICE

In a poem for our turbulent times, the folk singer Joan Baez sounds off on quitting pessimism, the problem with optimism, and why the best thing we can do is become activists

IT’S COMPLICATED

With the Trump tariffs, New Brunswick’s Campobello Island, off the coast of Maine, has become like a child of divorce, caught between two bickering parents: the U.S. and Canada

Issue No. 319

August 23, 2025

YALE ON BAIL

While Trump is taking a guillotine to American universities from Harvard to UVA to Columbia, the New Haven Ivy seems to be missing from his hit list, at least for now. Clara Molot asks why

BLURRED LINES

With the 2026 midterms fast approaching, Democrats are facing a dilemma: embrace gerrymandering to block Trump’s authoritarianism or reject it and risk losing at the polls

NUTTY ON NANTUCKET

William D. Cohan reports that the island—home to roughly 10 percent of America’s billionaires—has been plagued by chain-saw-wielding neighbors, housing shortages, and breaking windmill blades

Issue No. 318

August 16, 2025

DUBYA.T.F.?

Gen Z is recasting George W. Bush as a lovable Bob Ross–meets–Michael Scott figure, and older generations, who remember Iraq and Katrina all too well, are horrified

A TALE OF TWO SOUTHAMPTONS

Members of Long Island’s Shinnecock Nation are struggling to make ends meet in a neighborhood overtaken by Manhattan billionaires

D.E.I. BATTLEGROUND

The resignation of UVA’s respected president may seem like the result of just another skirmish in the nationwide fight over D.E.I., but the real story is more Machiavellian

Issue No. 317

August 9, 2025

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF YORK

Prince Andrew’s and Sarah Ferguson’s transgressions run far deeper than Jeffrey Epstein—and may well spell the end of the monarchy

DR. FEELBAD

How a New York physician to the stars was allegedly defrauded by his own staff and sued them, in a bizarre case of reverse malpractice

A PRE-EXISTING ENGAGEMENT

Cazzie David marvels at the rise of the helicopter bride: the trend among Gen Z women to leave nothing about their proposals to chance

Issue No. 316

August 2, 2025

INSIDE MEN

Israel has long had a vibrant spy network in Iran, but now Iranian agents are recruiting ordinary Israelis willing to betray their country for cash, sex, or political retribution

PRESIDENTIAL SEAL OF APPROVAL

Trump is the first U.S. president to use his office to profit from merchandising. Barry Levinson tours his store—MAGA caps, “God Bless the U.S.A.” Bibles, and all

GOLD RETRIEVERS

In part two of our Toronto-gold-heist series: police track down the thieves, many of whom are living large abroad, but the $40 million in bullion is nowhere to be found

Issue No. 315

July 26, 2025

ART AND ARTIFICE

How a master New York art dealer (and convicted fraudster) was nearly fooled into buying fake Impressionist paintings supposedly looted by the Nazis during W.W. II

THREE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE

Donald Trump, Britney Spears, and Kanye West walk into a bar. The punch line? The decline of American civilization in the 21st century

THE CANADIAN JOB

Inside the $40 million Toronto-airport gold heist, executed in just 30 minutes by a motley crew of amateur thieves, that puts the Michael Caine–starring Italian Job to shame

Issue No. 314

July 19, 2025

A VINTAGE CONTEMPORARY

Once the most influential editor in American fiction, Gary Fisketjon was abruptly cast out of publishing in 2019. He talks to AIR MAIL’s Ash Carter about what’s next

MONEY TALKS

Protests are fine, historian Adam Hochschild explains, but nothing moves decision-makers quite like a boycott threat. Tesla could be just the start

A LARGE PINCH OF SALT

The latest literary scandal rocking Britain involves a James Frey–esque case of an author whose best-selling memoir The Salt Path turns out to be largely embellished

Issue No. 313

July 12, 2025

THE FABULOUS FABULIST

To his friends, Matthew Pietras was a free-spending socialite, a Broadway angel, a philanthropist, and a Soros employee. Then real life—and death—caught up with him

BENCHED TRIAL

The killer of the four University of Idaho students who pleaded guilty to avoid a possible death sentence had another motive for his confession

FALSE GODS

A pair of magnificent bronze statues discovered in the Calabrian sea may actually have been looted by the Mob and placed there in an antiquities-smuggling scheme

Issue No. 312

July 5, 2025

SHOOTING ALONE

One year ago, Thomas Matthew Crooks shot and almost killed Donald Trump. Rich Cohen asks, Why do we know so little about his motives?

SIMPLY BEASTLY

How Jimmy Donaldson—the YouTube content creator MrBeast—became one of the most popular entertainers of all time by creating vicious, Hobbesian game shows

CRYBABIES

Gen Z is getting nostalgic for a more authentic, pre-Internet life—one they never knew. But is their “loss of lack” just generational moaning?

Issue No. 311

June 28, 2025

LONDON CALLING

Ashley Baker makes the case for fleeing America for England, where housing prices are low and the monarchs know their place

SECRET SAUCE

The driving force behind the star-studded 1981 anti-drug special that producer Robert Evans made to avoid jail? Lots of cocaine

BONNY YANKEES

An influx of rich, preppy American students has given the University of St. Andrews, Prince William’s alma mater, an Ivy-adjacent vibe

Issue No. 310

June 21, 2025

BULLSHIT ARTIST

There are so many apt words for the nonsense that Donald Trump peddles, but they never seem to stick. At long last, New York governor Kathy Hochul has found one that does

LORD OF THE FLIES

Can Jared Kushner and Aman Resorts tame a desolate, snake-ridden island off the coast of Albania and turn it into a high-end holiday getaway? Well, if you can make it in the White House

MAGA IN HOT PANTS

“This is where I met Matt Gaetz”: Natalie Winters, a White House correspondent for Steve Bannon’s War Room, wears denim short shorts for a pub crawl through Trump’s Washington

Issue No. 309

June 14, 2025

CATCH-32

The Trump administration may rely on an obscure legal loophole—Title 32 of the U.S. Code—to wrest control of the National Guard and dispatch units to other states to round up illegal immigrants and protesters

UNREAL ESTATE

Billionaire estate collector Stephen A. Schwarzman is once again irking the locals, this time by adding a lake to his $85 million, 17th-century manor in the English countryside

ROCKET MONEY

With an ironclad pre-nup in hand, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is readying for his modest $10 million Venice wedding to Lauren Sánchez before 200 of their closest rich and famous friends

Issue No. 308

June 7, 2025

BAD ACTOR

Allegations about Jared Leto’s improprieties with younger women have swirled around him for decades. In an AIR MAIL exclusive, the actor’s accusers are finally speaking out

WAR AND PEACE

In the midst of Ukrainian drone attacks and increased repression by Putin, many Russians hope that Trump—the “Savior from Mar-a-Lago”—will deliver an end to the war

SPEAKING POWER TO POWER

Johann Rupert’s shooting down of Trump’s white-genocide claim was a master class in diplomacy—and a rare public appearance for Africa’s richest man

Issue No. 307

May 31, 2025

DRAMATIC IRONY

Donald Trump has taken over the Kennedy Center, banning “woke” content from its stages—so why is Les Misérables, a musical with a progressive message, set to be its first show under this administration?

An Englishman Abroad

A Brazilian judge convinced his colleagues he was a member of the British aristocracy. But it was all a sham—he had grown up on the mean streets of São Paulo

TROUBLE AND STRIFE

A critical debate is raging about whether Brooklyn Beckham is subservient to his wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham. Isn’t this what everyone used to say about David and Victoria?

Issue No. 306

May 24, 2025

LOADED ISSUE

An East Hampton shooting range “for the common man” has been allegedly peppering the houses of wealthy Hamptonites with bullets, igniting a slobs-versus-snobs battle

DEUS EX MACHINA

Contrary to popular belief, religion isn’t dying—it’s mutating, with Silicon Valley’s techno-utopians preaching a gospel of self-optimization and A.I. worship

BUNKER LOGIC

Forget super-yachts and fine art—what billionaires really want are their own private golf clubs, built to their specifications and with extremely restricted membership

Issue No. 305

May 17, 2025

MESS-EN-SCÈNE

A young actress believed she’d come across an opportunity to make good money. Instead, she and 134 other women were the victims of a pornography scheme allegedly run by a Venetian aristocrat

FIELDS OF STUDY

Whether to reject capitalist society or find “true” occupational happiness, the Gen Z graduates of elite colleges from Barnard to Middlebury are forgoing finance jobs for manual labor

CITY OF LITECOIN

Although Emmanuel Macron has done his best to paint Paris as a paradise for crypto-currency execs, a slew of recent kidnappings—with violent consequences—has rattled the digital nouveau riche

Issue No. 304

May 10, 2025

TOPIC OF CANCER

A year ago, an exclusive AIR MAIL investigation revealed shocking rates of cancer among Roanoke College’s young alumni. In part two of her series, Clara Molot uncovers more cancer—and attempts by the school to downplay the potential dangers

TRUMPING TRUMP

One is an internationally renowned economist who steered his country from the edge of financial ruin. The other is a felon whose shoddy business résumé is laden with bankruptcies. Is Mark Carney the perfect foil to Donald Trump?

YANKEE STAY HOME

As the Trump administration continues to tighten the borders, foreign travel into the country is plummeting, and Americans living abroad, or just returning from vacation, are worried about re-entering their homeland

Issue No. 303

May 3, 2025

SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

More than two decades after School of Rock became a beloved family film, Ezra Marcus reveals the allegedly abusive acts by the real-life institution’s founder, as recounted by his former students

SATURDAY NIGHT LEAVE

Following the deportation of three American children, one of whom reportedly has cancer, David Kamp has a suggestion for shedding light on Trump’s atrocities: deport Lorne Michaels

CRUDE INTENTIONS

An explosive London court case alleges that an ExxonMobil-funded firm carried out cyber-attacks on environmental groups. Among the victims are the Rockefellers, whose forebears had their own history of dirty tricks

Issue No. 302

April 26, 2025

THE ART OF THE STEAL

No one has done dodgy presidential crypto with the scale, bravado, and corruption as Trump, but that hasn’t stopped other strongmen from trying, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Argentina’s Javier Milei among them

BAD WILL HUNTING

The far right’s latest crusade? Arguing that Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of rape and sexual assault by more than 80 women, is a victim of the “overzealous” #MeToo movement

A KILLER COURSE LOAD

With the trial of alleged murderer Bryan Kohberger months away, the prosecution could argue that the former criminal-justice student was driven to act to impress his female professor

Issue No. 301

April 19, 2025

A LIFE CUT SHORT

During her shift at a boutique furniture store in Los Angeles, 24-year-old Brianna Kupfer was savagely murdered by a man with an extensive criminal record. Our reporter goes inside the heart-wrenching trial that followed

NORTHWARD BOUND

A group of Yale professors, including Timothy Snyder, who see parallels between the current U.S. government and that of 1930s Germany, have fled to Toronto, which is quickly becoming a refuge from Trumpism

OFF MENU

While working as a sommelier in Manhattan’s Michelin-starred Jean-Georges restaurant, Hannah Selinger was sexually assaulted by a highly regarded pastry chef—and she wasn’t the only one. She shares her story

Issue No. 300

April 12, 2025

WORLD WIDE WEB OF INTRIGUE

Meet the sleuth who reportedly tracked down the cyber-criminals who hoodwinked a French divorcée out of almost $1 million—with an A.I. impersonation of Brad Pitt

POWER TRIP

When Alexander Hamilton advocated for presidential pardons, he emphasized the responsibility it would require. He could never have predicted Trump’s abuses of the power

JESUS $AVES

As if Trump’s denial of “Love thy neighbor” wasn’t sacrilegious enough, the leader of the White House’s recently established “Faith Office,” Paula White, is seemingly an extortionist crook

Issue No. 299

April 5, 2025

GONE MAD

Deporting protesters! Shilling Teslas! Berating Zelensky! With college basketball’s March Madness tournament nearly over, we’ve created our own bracket: for the Trump administration’s maddest moments

HEAVY LIES THE CROWN

Despite a much-watched (if cringe-worthy) Netflix show, the Sussexes are back in the hot seat, with Prince Harry accused of bullying by the chair of his own African charity

CURB APPEAL

Thanks in large part to Trump’s flourishing bromance with Putin, Russian oligarchs are beginning to swarm the U.S.—especially New York, where they’re looking to buy apartments for tens of millions

Issue No. 298

March 29, 2025

SETTLING THE SCORE

Sexual-harassment allegations against the Grammy-winning composer Danny Elfman nearly put an end to his career. An AIR MAIL investigation by Jacob Bernstein reveals there’s more to the story than meets the eye

THE ILLUSIONISTS

How the conspiracy theories—and theorists—underlying Oliver Stone’s 1991 thriller about the J.F.K. assassination stoked the false narratives that propelled Trump into the White House for a second time

IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME

A series of bombings have sent shock waves through Geneva. More startling even than the alleged perpetrator—arrested at a crypto A.T.M.—is the target: luxury watchmaker Patek Philippe

Issue No. 297

March 22, 2025

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Suni Williams’s and Butch Wilmore’s paths to NASA couldn’t have been more different, and yet their lives collided on a now notorious mission from which they’ve only just returned

REALITY CHECK

In an open letter to the Anti-Defamation League, Alessandra Stanley warns that Jewish organizations could follow judges, lawyers, and pro-Palestine activists as the next target of Trump’s ire

KREMLIN CRONY

The unlikely story of Kirill Dmitriev, a debonair Stanford and Harvard grad and Goldman Sachs alum who became the middleman brokering Putin’s wartime negotiations with Trump

Issue No. 296

March 15, 2025

WORRIED SICK

After a career in pediatric hospitals, Dr. Adam Ratner, an infectious-diseases specialist, is spooked by the long-term dangers posed by the measles outbreak

SECRET WEAPON

How a nuclear bomb 190 times more powerful than the one dropped on Nagasaki was lost off the coast of Georgia and—despite what the government says—might still be at risk of detonating

ROOMS FOR IMPROVEMENT

New York City’s Waldorf Astoria was once an emblem of American grandeur. A decade after its closure, the reopening—under an unlikely new owner—doesn’t bode well

Issue No. 295

March 8, 2025

REVERSE-NIXON

Might Donald Trump’s public dressing down of Volodymyr Zelensky have been intended to repair relations with Russia and put China on their back foot, Richard Nixon–style?

A ROYAL PAIN

Spare yourself the agony of watching countless hours of Meghan Markle on-screen—read our rundown of With Love, Meghan instead

FIT FOR A KING

Two descendants of Louis XIV and a great-great-great-nephew of Napoleon believe it’s high time for France to revert from a republic to a monarchy—and that one of them should run it