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March 22, 2025
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No. 297
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In This Week’s Issue
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 …

SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

Inside a boot camp for conservative “patriot entrepreneurs”—suitably named Operation Black Site—where target practice, jujitsu, and verbal abuse are all part of the curriculum …

THE FULL PICTURE

How Leica, which celebrates its centenary this month, went from a small Frankfurt boutique to the cult-favorite camera company of everyone from Robert Capa to Annie Leibovitz …

NOT-SO-INSTANT KARMA

A new biography sets the record straight on Yoko Ono, who, at 92, is still wrongly blamed by many for breaking up the Beatles …

DOUBLE ACT

As if Robert De Niro hasn’t played enough mobsters, in his latest film, The Alto Knights, he stars as both Frank Costello and Vito Genovese in a Nick Pileggi–scripted dual performance that’s not to be missed …

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Turnkey sales have become all the rage in real estate for the 1 percent … the secondhand-fashion app taking over Europe … Operation Mincemeat brings West End flair to Broadway … small-town baseball tales … Hans Zimmer reveals his favorite things … AIR MAIL’s guide to your Albanian vacation … Who was this week’s biggest Attention Whore?

But First …
Issue No. 297

The View from Here The Anti-Defamation League should think twice before cheering Trump’s crackdown on anti-Zionists

By Alessandra Stanley
Read On
Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook
Space Odyssey

Stranded in NewSpace: Part II Their 10-day mission to the International Space Station stretched to more than nine months. But Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s journey to the stars began decades earlier

By Howard Blum
Read On
Seeing Red

Harvard Henchman Putin’s point person for brokering a Ukraine peace agreement with Trump is a rich, Ivy League smoothie

By Andrew Ryvkin
Read On
Open House

They’ll Take the Lot! Interior design meets soap opera in the latest high-end real-estate trend, where the wealthy approach homeowners with no desire to sell and buy their houses turnkey—down to the tchotchkes

By Mark C. O'Flaherty
Read On
Air Supply

In the Garden

It’s time to wake up your garden for spring. AIR SUPPLY’s guide to tending your plot in style has everything you need to sow and reap
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Photo: Francois Ancellet/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images (garden)
Guest Edit

Suki Waterhouse and Poppy Jamie’s Favorite Things The best friends and collaborators have launched With Gratitude, an app that lets friends share gratitude lists. Here, a few things they’re grateful for

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Small Talk
Prepper School

It’s a MAGA Man’s World At Operation Black Site, a three-day training camp in California, right-wing “entrepreneurs” shoot guns and practice handcuffing—preparing for an America under siege

By Darius J. Rubin
Read On
Best
READ Firstborn This slim but moving memoir by Lauren Christensen takes as its through line a quote by Elizabeth McCracken: “The baby was… Lather Olaplex You’ve been neglecting your scalp, but it’s O.K. You’re among friends. Who knew that it, too, required the tender loving care we… WATCH Douglas Is Cancelled A middle-aged British news anchor tells a sexist joke at a boozy wedding and suddenly finds… DRINK Moët & Chandon x Pharrell Williams Moët & Chandon has teamed up with American musician—and the men’s creative director at… WEAR Chloé Chemena Kamali, the new creative director at Chloé, is bringing back bohemian femininity in a sophisticated way that has… CARRY Aleon Sometimes it pays to look like a rich tourist and sometimes it doesn’t. If you’re checking into the Crillon, you don’t want to be pulling a… READ Firstborn This slim but moving memoir by Lauren Christensen takes as its through line a quote by Elizabeth McCracken: “The baby was… Lather Olaplex You’ve been neglecting your scalp, but it’s O.K. You’re among friends. Who knew that it, too, required the tender loving care we… WATCH Douglas Is Cancelled A middle-aged British news anchor tells a sexist joke at a boozy wedding and suddenly finds… DRINK Moët & Chandon x Pharrell Williams Moët & Chandon has teamed up with American musician—and the men’s creative director at… WEAR Chloé Chemena Kamali, the new creative director at Chloé, is bringing back bohemian femininity in a sophisticated way that has… CARRY Aleon Sometimes it pays to look like a rich tourist and sometimes it doesn’t. If you’re checking into the Crillon, you don’t want to be pulling a…
T.G.I.S.

The Attention-Whore Index Chuck Schumer gets crowd-shy, Donald Trump whispers sweet nothings, and Liz Truss breaks hearts

Read On
Adventures in Photography

The Cult of Leica The German camera company, which has supplied photographers from Henri Cartier-Bresson to Annie Leibovitz and sabotaged the Third Reich during W.W. II, turns 100 this year

By Jonathan Margolis
Read On
Inside Story

The Yin to John Lennon’s Yang Half a century after co-writing “Imagine” with her Beatle husband, Yoko Ono is finally getting the recognition she deserves

By David Sheff
Read On
Double Feature

The Mafia’s Dark Knights With Robert De Niro playing both leading roles, Barry Levinson’s exhilarating The Alto Knights depicts the real-life clash of the Mafia titans Vito Genovese and Frank Costello

By Michael Sragow
Read On
Elements of Style

The Cut-Price Catwalk From vintage Chloé to your kids’ leftover Zara, the Lithuanian fashion platform Vinted has become the place to buy, and sell, clothes

By Ashley Baker
Read On
Small Talk
A historic event in Candyland. When m met m.
A historic event in Candyland. When m met m.
Listen

Mobbed Up: The Two Faces of Robert De Niro On this week’s podcast, Michael Sragow takes us inside the new mobster movie from Nick Pileggi and Barry Levinson

Read On
Highlight
The artist Jack Whitten with his painting Pink Psyche Queen, circa 1975.

Jack of All Trades

In 1968, in the months after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) decided to honor the man with an exhibition. Works by artists such as Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, and Alexander Calder would be shown and then sold to benefit King’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Everything was going as planned for the October opening, until somebody noticed that the organizers had failed to include art by people of color. READ ON

Read On
Britons on Broadway

The British Are Coming! Operation Mincemeat—the Olivier Award–winning West End musical about a W.W. II–era deception operation that fooled the Nazis—is taking Broadway by storm

By Tim Teeman
Read On
Children’s Classics

All Aboard the Hogwarts Express! A “very, very specifically British 1990s production”: here’s everything we know so far about HBO’s eagerly awaited Harry Potter adaptation

By Liam Kelly
Read On
After Hours

A Night Celebrating Josh Duboff On Wednesday night, New York’s young media set gathered at the Waverly Inn to toast the former Vanity Fair writer’s novel, Early Thirties

By Carolina de Armas
Photographs by Daniel Paik
11
Josh Duboff and Alyssa Reeder.
Top, Renée Gadar; above, Graydon Carter and Josh Duboff.
Top, Ian Malone, Rob Franklin, Helen Rouner; above, Sammy Loren with a friend.
Top, Alison Roman, Sara Zandi, and Josh Duboff; above, Lucy Feldman.
Top, Chris Rovzar; above, Mikaela Dery, Daniel Tsinis, and friend.
Top, Jim Kelly; above, Elena Cicognani and Anna Page.
Top, Helen Rouner; above, Josh Duboff, Linda Berkeley, Janet Berkeley, and Rob Duboff.
Top, Jensen Davis and Danny Karel; above, Larry Milstein.
Top, Paulina Prosnitz, Carolina de Armas, Jack Sullivan, Victoria Herman, and Jeanne Malle; above, Bruce Handy, Evgenia Peretz, and Dana Brown.
Top, Ellie Lynch and Conor Truax; above, Sam Duboff and Lauren Drell.
Top, James Melia, Josh Duboff, and Elias Altman; above, the scene outside the Waverly Inn.
Read On
Film

The Friend Zone The author Sigrid Nunez on the film adaptation of her National Book Award–winning novel, starring Naomi Watts, Bill Murray, and a Great Dane

By Nicolas Rapold
Read On
Books
Alex Perez On

Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America

by Will Bardenwerper
Read On
Television

The Kids Aren’t Alright Adolescence—the harrowing British miniseries about a teenager charged with murder—is about every parent’s worst nightmare

By Ben Dowell
Read On
Open Book

Signs of the Times From giant Nazi monsters to Mussolini–loving children, a new coffee-table book collects 20th- and 21st-century propaganda used by regimes around the world

12
From Cuba, the cover of Tricontinental magazine—a publication of the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America—designed by Alfredo Rostgaard in 1969.
From Thailand, an anti-gossip poster by the Armed Forces Security Center that reads, “Women, socializing, and liquor often lead to secrets slipping,” 1960s.
From Uganda, an anti-AIDS poster by the Ministry of Health, 1996.
From the United Kingdom, a pro–European Communities poster by the Liberal Party, 1975.
From Ukraine, an anti-U.S.S.R. New Year’s card by the artist Volodymyr Kaplun, 1950s.
From Northern Ireland, a pro-Troubles poster by the Irish Republican Army, circa 1974.
From Angola, the cover of Tricontinental on the Angolan civil war, 1995.
From North Korea, The Liberator of Korea, a pro–Kim Jong Un painting by the Russian artist Vasily Galaktionov, 2013.
From Peru, an anti–Communist Party comic by the Peruvian government that reads, “Confessions of a Senderista” and “Popular Judgment,” 1989.
From the U.S.S.R., students from the Academy of Arts in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) painting a portrait of Joseph Stalin for the May Day celebrations, 1934.
From Germany, an anti–British Grand Fleet postcard by the U-boat campaign that reads, “Purchase war loans for U-boats against England,” 1941.
From East Germany, an International Women’s Day poster, 1955.
Read On
Close-up

Liz Caribel Sierra The 27-year-old actress is bringing Dominican culture to the screen in Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice and Ridley Scott’s Dope Thief

By Paulina Prosnitz
Read On
Travel

A Beginner’s Guide to Albania Empty beaches, dramatic mountains, and intriguing monuments make it the latest hot spot for intrepid travelers. Just get there before the Kushners!

By Alexander Lobrano
Read On
The Perfect Ending

Hans Zimmer

The Academy Award–winning composer answers 42 of life’s most pressing questions
Read On
Drew Friedman’s Sketchbook
And now for my next trick: the 25th anniversary of Chamber Magic, presented by magician Steve Cohen, will be marked with a performance on March 28 at the Lotte New York Palace. Cohen’s sleight-of-hand spectacular—which includes “Think-a-Drink,” his signature illusion, which dates back to the vaudeville era—is the longest-running solo magic show in the history of New York, having entertained more than 500,000 guests.
Is Edited By

Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

Creative Director

Angela Panichi

Deputy Editors

Ashley Baker Ash Carter Chris Garrett Nathan King Julia Vitale

Chief Technology Officer

John Tornow

Editor at Large

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Books Editor

Jim Kelly

Arts Intel Report Editor

Laura Jacobs

Senior Editor

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Clara Molot

Photo Director

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Copy Editor

Adam Nadler

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Junior Editors

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Associate Editors

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Art Director

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Senior Photo Editor

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Deputy Art Director

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International Editor

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Communications Director

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Columnists

Dana Brown Cazzie David Lisa Henricksson
Walter Isaacson Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson
John Lahr Jonathan Margolis Linda Wells
James Wolcott

Writers at Large

Lili Anolik Bridget Arsenault Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Spike Carter Vassi Chamberlain William D. Cohan Rich Cohen Matthew Gurewitsch Michael Hainey Stuart Heritage George Kalogerakis Sam Kashner James Kirchick Alexander Lobrano Alexandra Marshall Daphne Merkin Sam Wasson

Contributing Artists

Monica Ahanonu Barry Blitt André Carrilho Pip Carter Paul Davis David Downton Andrea Ferolla Josh Gosfield Cathy Graham Eric Hanson Angelica Hicks Hilary Knight Danielle Kosann Michael Lindsay-Hogg Ross MacDonald Joe McKendry James McMullan Donald Robertson Charles Dare Scheips Grant Shaffer Ed Sorel Ralph Steadman

Contributing Photographers

Jonathan Becker Justin Bishop Alex Board James Emmerman Marcos Fecchino Daniel Paik Art Streiber Sharon Suh Justin Weiner

Architectural Consultant

Basil Walter

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Rachel LeSage

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Technology

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OUR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER ARE

Bill Keenan and Emily Davis

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In Memoriam

Peter Bogdanovich Duncan Hannah Douglas McGrath Richard David Story André Leon Talley David Yaffe

Issue No. 297
March 22, 2025
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Issue No. 297
March 22, 2025
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