{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"September 26, 2026 – Air Mail","description":"Welcome to Air Mail Issue number 376.","favicon":"https://static.airmail.news/assets/icons/apple-touch-icon.png","home_page_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26","feed_url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26.json","items":[{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-view-from-here","title":"The View from Here","content_text":"I lasted 11 days in the White House, which means I’ve spent more time in line at the Nassau County D.M.V. than I spent advising the president of the United States. When you get fired that fast, you learn to read a room, and the room I’m reading now is the American electorate, less than six weeks out from the midterms, standing in the checkout aisle at ShopRite, looking at a receipt like it’s a ransom note.What I call the Money Point of View of History explains midterm elections better than any consultant with a PowerPoint. If you want ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-view-from-here","summary":"I lasted 11 days in the White House, which means I’ve spent more time in line at the Nassau County D.M.V. than I spent advising the president of the United States. When you get fired that fast, you learn to...","tags":["The View from Here","But First ..."],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/g707b8ki6z889c2eh78vuswgcruy-7069c311acf11a6d12677ae6ce55f44d.jpg","author":{"name":"Anthony Scaramucci"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/anthony-scaramucci\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eAnthony Scaramucci\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"The American voter is a very unhappy customer right now—and management is about to get an earful","shorts":false,"banner":"But First ...","category":"The View from Here"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/barry-blitts-sketchbook","title":"Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook","content_text":null,"url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/barry-blitts-sketchbook","summary":null,"tags":["Sketchbook","Barry Blitt's Sketchbook"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/c1rwqpys3ufxsyto1mi0314b9rdt-b3061308b1fedce865e524bacc5f60ea.jpg","date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":null,"subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Barry Blitt's Sketchbook","category":"Sketchbook"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/from-russia-with-likes","title":"From Russia with Likes","content_text":"Andrew Tate was smoking a cigar and dancing to Boney M’s 1978 novelty disco hit “Rasputin” with his brother, Tristan, when he announced a forthcoming visit to Moscow. This past June, they were met with a traditional Russian greeting and offered bread and salt. (Think dipping challah in salt during Shabbat, but with a strong hint of Slavic nationalism.) The result of the Tates’ trip was a 40-minute YouTube video in which the controversial brothers visit the Kremlin and other tourist sites and discuss Russian history. Wearing camouflage and body armor, they ride a tank, fire a rocket launcher, and throw grenades from trenches. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/from-russia-with-likes","summary":"Andrew Tate was smoking a cigar and dancing to Boney M’s 1978 novelty disco hit “Rasputin” with his brother, Tristan, when he announced a forthcoming visit to Moscow. This past June, they were met with a traditional Russian greeting and...","tags":["News","license to shill"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/c25by0c6fhggilx0ckzemczxoef3-cb903500d34bf834e97e7b98b5584ea5.jpg","author":{"name":"Andrew Ryvkin"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/andrew-ryvkin\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eAndrew Ryvkin\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"As Cold War–style propaganda becomes less effective, the Kremlin is getting its message out the 21st-century way: via online influencers","shorts":false,"banner":"license to shill","category":"News"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-earl-making-the-royals-squirm","title":"The Earl Making the Royals Squirm","content_text":"As a small boy, Charles Spencer was known to his family as “Buzz” for his bee-like effervescence. Today, the buzzing is of a decidedly less innocent variety. The 9th Earl Spencer—former journalist, historian, godson to Queen Elizabeth, veteran of three divorces and, of course, the only brother of Diana, Princess of Wales—has re-entered the national conversation like a hornet in the royal enclosure.We already know from the headlines that Spencer has accused King Charles of sounding “giddily elated” and “like a lottery winner” after Diana’s death. He also alleges that Charles casually told him that he was “so ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-earl-making-the-royals-squirm","summary":"As a small boy, Charles Spencer was known to his family as “Buzz” for his bee-like effervescence. Today, the buzzing is of a decidedly less innocent variety. The 9th Earl Spencer—former journalist, historian, godson to Queen Elizabeth, veteran of three...","tags":["The Royal Family","Royal Follies I"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/pwv50hhwxh8s2trweo2lenjufclb-eca97801b62a7fb2a3ad539eab1edadf.png","author":{"name":"Johanna Thomas-Corr"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/johanna-thomas-corr\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJohanna Thomas-Corr\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Charles Spencer’s new memoir of his sister, Princess Diana, serves up a royal rogues’ gallery—from King Charles’s alleged elation at her death to tales of a light-fingered Prince Philip","shorts":false,"banner":"Royal Follies I","category":"The Royal Family"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/harry-and-meghan-in-the-court-of-the-cotswolds","title":"Harry and Meghan in the Court of the Cotswolds","content_text":"The swimming pool is long, serene and lined with huge healing crystals, the water unbroken. The sauna is full of financiers, businessmen and banter led by Sir Ben Elliot, the former Tory chairman and nephew of the Queen. Wellness-obsessed housewives ease themselves into cold-plunge barrels. Battles rage on the padel courts, involving illustrious names such as the Belvoir scion Lady Alice Manners, jeweler Charlie Pragnell and Charlie Brooks, the racehorse trainer and husband of Rebekah, Rupert Murdoch’s UK media chief. Upstairs afterwards, it’s Château Léoube rosé and WFB: working from Bamford. More specifically, The Club by Bamford.None of my sources have spotted Meghan here yet, but this is ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/harry-and-meghan-in-the-court-of-the-cotswolds","summary":"The swimming pool is long, serene and lined with huge healing crystals, the water unbroken. The sauna is full of financiers, businessmen and banter led by Sir Ben Elliot, the former Tory chairman and nephew of the Queen. Wellness-obsessed housewives...","tags":["The Royal Family","Royal Follies II"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/n0nouq4h5ri2s0klqeckzzgkrwdg-e829a80c72738a54ce3cc6f25bcdd0ce.jpg","author":{"name":"Eilidh Hargreaves"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/eilidh-hargreaves\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eEilidh Hargreaves\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"In England’s toniest rural enclave, a royal title only gets you so far. Can the Sussexes charm the people who rule it?","shorts":false,"banner":"Royal Follies II","category":"The Royal Family"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/elsebound","title":"Elsebound","content_text":"How to best describe photographer Nicolas Rachline’s haunting work? It’s as though painter Edward Hopper’s shadowy, solitary subjects ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/elsebound","summary":"How to best describe photographer Nicolas Rachline’s haunting work? It’s as though painter Edward Hopper’s shadowy, solitary subjects ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/y7cv3d5mcdpuwl69eh2l0v1wcsgc-206a03595f4413fadc87aaaa1d333ced.png","author":{"name":"Maggie Turner"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/maggie-turner\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eMaggie Turner\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"look","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-city-without-jews","title":"The City Without Jews","content_text":"Hitler’s forces did not march into and annex Austria until 1938, but a Nazi actually killed the first Jew in Vienna ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-city-without-jews","summary":"Hitler’s forces did not march into and annex Austria until 1938, but a Nazi actually killed the first Jew in Vienna ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/h0z06q7dxl18711adj2oc1g8kurj-3dd64932e8aa9d45229ec2fd456df719.png","author":{"name":"Jim Kelly"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jim-kelly\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJim Kelly\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"read","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/rio-bravo","title":"Rio Bravo","content_text":"Think of Hollywood Westerns and it’s hard not to picture John Wayne. Rio Bravo was released in 1959 during the peak of the genre. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/rio-bravo","summary":"Think of Hollywood Westerns and it’s hard not to picture John Wayne. Rio Bravo was released in 1959 during the peak of the genre. ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/f76zz7rf1nr7bic3cmfnncbw2tbi-962d98b848bb1485d45e51b3bb62a390.png","author":{"name":"Eve Eismann"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/eve-eismann\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eEve Eismann\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"watch","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/overset","title":"Overset","content_text":"There have been many fashionable upgrades in tennis, from on-the-court outfits to jewelry. (We’re looking at you, Sabalenka.) ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/overset","summary":"There have been many fashionable upgrades in tennis, from on-the-court outfits to jewelry. (We’re looking at you, Sabalenka.) ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/a5pvfbiojzqwfsujpq1op0idav2c-5d212ea9df45676ee0bc326715d43f75.png","author":{"name":"Gracie Wiener"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/gracie-wiener\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eGracie Wiener\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"grip","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/viya","title":"Viya","content_text":"Even the most serious of minimalists have a streak of maximalism in them—even if they don’t quite know it yet. Allow this Viya vase ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/viya","summary":"Even the most serious of minimalists have a streak of maximalism in them—even if they don’t quite know it yet. Allow this Viya vase ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/v62b9kacrul39whcynmpwzreijlc-d0e5d0862689f0bc2b984080f677352d.png","author":{"name":"Jimena Elmufdi"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jimena-elmufdi\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJimena Elmufdi\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"decorate","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/rubirosas","title":"Rubirosa’s","content_text":"On Rue de Grenelle in Paris, Lauren Rubinski has proved that, in addition to designing jewelry, she can design the perfect collared shirt ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/rubirosas","summary":"On Rue de Grenelle in Paris, Lauren Rubinski has proved that, in addition to designing jewelry, she can design the perfect collared shirt ...","tags":["Recommended","Best"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/yb09paot7u4rx662n73p6q9av78q-47aaae923ce882e1743cd01aee4fa765.png","author":{"name":"Victoria Herman"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/victoria-herman\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eVictoria Herman\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"shop","shorts":true,"banner":"Best","category":"Recommended"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/only-messiahs-in-the-building","title":"Only Messiahs in the Building","content_text":"Long before he was Johnny Rose on Schitt’s Creek, Eugene Levy wanted desperately to play Jesus in Godspell. (Yes, after all those Renaissance frescoes, it is hard to remember that Jesus was, in fact, Jewish.) The year was 1972. The show had debuted at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York on May 17, 1971, and roughly 1,000 young Canadian actors turned up to audition for the local production that would premiere at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre the following June. Few of them had seen the show or knew the songs.Levy planned to perform “Aquarius,” the earworm from Hair ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/only-messiahs-in-the-building","summary":"Long before he was Johnny Rose on Schitt’s Creek, Eugene Levy wanted desperately to play Jesus in Godspell. (Yes, after all those Renaissance frescoes, it is hard to remember that Jesus was, in fact, Jewish.) The year was 1972. The...","tags":["Film and Television","The divine comedy"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/lbuuu8lb8x4qnwou0v8l6fjno26r-4be01ce5ca70dac80d732ba9603f651e.jpg","author":{"name":"John Brodie"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/john-brodie\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJohn Brodie\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"A new documentary revisits the fabled 1972 Toronto \u003cem\u003eGodspell\u003c/em\u003e production that launched the careers of Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, and Victor Garber","shorts":false,"banner":"The divine comedy","category":"Film and Television"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/closet-rivals","title":"Closet Rivals","content_text":"My daughter looked at my new tennis sneakers long enough to form an opinion, then delivered it: “I’d never wear those. I’m not … 50.” I told her neither was I (there may have been a shriek), put them back in the box (never so fast in my life), and made a mental note that 14-year-olds don’t run focus groups. They deliver verdicts, and they don’t take questions after.Here is what she has not yet reconciled: she wears Asics. The very shoe that has been standard equipment for 50-year-old men doing errands since roughly 1998, now laundered through ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/closet-rivals","summary":"My daughter looked at my new tennis sneakers long enough to form an opinion, then delivered it: “I’d never wear those. I’m not … 50.” I told her neither was I (there may have been a shriek), put them back...","tags":["Style","Notes on an Aesthetic"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/htm3jfyzccpxam3wn5d2oavzvgh6-3e5356bad89493a84df6c853a46873bf.jpg","author":{"name":"Jennifer Noyes"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jennifer-noyes\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJennifer Noyes\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"My daughter dismisses my sneakers as middle-aged, then dresses like her father. Apparently, looking old is a privilege of the young","shorts":false,"banner":"Notes on an Aesthetic","category":"Style"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/kebab-camp","title":"Kebab Camp","content_text":"Back in the 70s and early 80s, I grew up with Meat Loaf Night, once a week, every week. Three strips of bacon on top that my siblings and I would fight over, side of mash, and iceberg salad with Thousand Island dressing that we had to finish, or no dessert. A couple of years ago, I introduced Koobideh Night in my own household. If I’m being honest, it’s because I was looking to save a few bucks. I have a teenage son who is of the mindset that however much protein is on the dinner table, double it. Try doing that with strip steak at $46 a pound. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/kebab-camp","summary":"Back in the 70s and early 80s, I grew up with Meat Loaf Night, once a week, every week. Three strips of bacon on top that my siblings and I would fight over, side of mash, and iceberg salad with...","tags":["Food and Drink","Food"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/cupycnnbn4545npb455jz1anp3w2-986a4979c4e77d1b28312b439fa05742.jpg","author":{"name":"Adam Rapoport"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/adam-rapoport\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eAdam Rapoport\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"I thought I was handy with a skewer. But when I watched Brooklyn’s koobideh king behind the grill, I realized I had a lot to learn","shorts":false,"banner":"Food","category":"Food and Drink"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-diagnose-it-yourself-presidential-check-up","title":"The Diagnose-It-Yourself Presidential Check-up","content_text":"Donald Trump has always insisted that his health is, like everything bearing his name, exceptional. During his first campaign, his then doctor, Harold Bornstein, asserted that Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Others see something more like one of his buildings: a gaudy façade concealing a welter of structural problems.Nor has Trump helped his cause. Since returning to office last year, he has undergone four publicly disclosed medical examinations, including three trips to Walter Reed in 13 months. The latest visit enlisted no fewer than 22 specialists to certify his clean bill of health. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-diagnose-it-yourself-presidential-check-up","summary":"Donald Trump has always insisted that his health is, like everything bearing his name, exceptional. During his first campaign, his then doctor, Harold Bornstein, asserted that Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Others see something...","tags":["Humor","ail to the chief"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/24mci3t86h8dtxljg8etlhjqlqv9-ee26690e00b0b4ee86156dc5b1ad573f.jpg","author":{"name":"George Pendle"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/george-pendle\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eGeorge Pendle\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"The parlor game that’s sweeping the nation!","shorts":false,"banner":"ail to the chief","category":"Humor"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/isle-take-it","title":"Isle Take It!","content_text":"A tiny island in the middle of the Venetian Lagoon, complete with a Napoleonic fort and lush gardens, is for sale for $6.2 million. Crevan, which its real-estate agent markets as an “enchanting oasis of peace and beauty”—and locals pronounce with an emphasis on the a—is just a few minutes by boat from the islands of Burano and Torcello, but a world away from the bustling crowds of St. Mark’s Square.The French military fortified the island in 1806 during the Napoleonic era as a strategic outpost to defend the northern lagoon against the Austrian Empire. After lying abandoned for decades, it was sold into private hands by the early 1960s and converted into a 2,300-square-foot villa, whose façade and layout cannot be modified. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/isle-take-it","summary":"A tiny island in the middle of the Venetian Lagoon, complete with a Napoleonic fort and lush gardens, is for sale for $6.2 million. Crevan, which its real-estate agent markets as an “enchanting oasis of peace and beauty”—and locals pronounce...","tags":["Travel"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/z0tk6y7padhbjrq8zwq6d2zl6a7q-46c7ab1035226d5b7c4cac17361f28b1.jpg","author":{"name":"Giovanni Legorano"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/giovanni-legorano\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eGiovanni Legorano\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"A private oasis in the Venetian Lagoon can be yours for $6.2 million. But as more of the lagoon’s islands go up for sale, locals are fighting to keep their sinking city from becoming a water park for the ultra-rich","shorts":false,"banner":"Travel","category":"Travel"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/a-california-brouhaha-in-scotland","title":"A California Brouhaha in Scotland","content_text":"The island of Great Bernera is eight square miles of rock, grassland, and white sand beaches buffeted by Atlantic wind and tide. It sits on the northwestern edge of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides—closer to Norway than to London—and has been inhabited for thousands of years, as a semicircle of megalithic standing stones can attest. Vikings once settled here, and the island has since endured pirates, mass evacuation, and tyrannical landlords. The latest disturbance, however, has come all the way from California.Many of Bernera’s roughly 250 residents observe the Sabbath: buses don’t run on Sundays, and businesses often stay closed. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/a-california-brouhaha-in-scotland","summary":"The island of Great Bernera is eight square miles of rock, grassland, and white sand beaches buffeted by Atlantic wind and tide. It sits on the northwestern edge of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides—closer to Norway than to London—and has been inhabited...","tags":["Modern Times","local villain"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/z178a4f9lqvg91bzc47rbbvenoh5-a813e8b56e0fc940623072c8042a65d7.jpg","author":{"name":"John Beck"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/john-beck\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJohn Beck\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"The Outer Hebrides have weathered Vikings and Atlantic storms—but nothing could have prepared them for a litigious Hollywood scion and her dog, Lady Tarkina Snow Fire","shorts":false,"banner":"local villain","category":"Modern Times"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/skincare/2026/9/does-your-skin-need-a-prescription","title":"Does Your Skin Need a Prescription?","content_text":"The most seductive skin-care products today don’t have French names or romantic backstories about flowers plucked at midnight or flecks of 24-karat gold suspended in nectar. Pretty packages are for amateurs. The current enticement is a plain white tube adorned with a typed sticker spelling out percentages, lot numbers, and warnings. If you’re serious about your skin, you want unpronounceable ingredients, clinical studies, unsexy fonts. The hard stuff. Couldn’t you just swoon?These new products are available by prescription from telehealth sites with the clear suggestion of superiority over the jars you’d find at Violet Grey or Sephora. It’s one more step in the scientification—yes, a word I made up—of skin care. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/skincare/2026/9/does-your-skin-need-a-prescription","summary":"The most seductive skin-care products today don’t have French names or romantic backstories about flowers plucked at midnight or flecks of 24-karat gold suspended in nectar. Pretty packages are for amateurs. The current enticement is a plain white tube adorned...","tags":["Skin Care","Skin in the Game"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/1otg4j2lla3pba4hider5lbgo5xr-d598e1f123429ee65502cc83f2eacb5b.png","author":{"name":"Linda Wells"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/linda-wells\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eLinda Wells\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"In the race for more powerful products, some people are turning to telemedicine for the hard stuff. Doctors question whether science has gone too far","shorts":false,"banner":"Skin in the Game","category":"Skin Care"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/he-wore-blue-velvet","title":"He Wore Blue Velvet","content_text":"In his sometimes rueful, often charming, and always bracingly self-aware memoir, Fictional Selves, the actor Kyle MacLachlan reflects on filmmaking (for him, it all began when he was yanked from obscurity to star in the 1984 space opera Dune); fear of failure, or, at the very least, fear of being a disappointment (it has been his constant companion); and fame (something that he never expected and tends to view more as a bug of his chosen occupation than an intrinsic feature).”Acting is a peculiar profession,” writes MacLachlan, whose credits include the movies Blue Velvet (1986), The Doors (1991), and ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/he-wore-blue-velvet","summary":"In his sometimes rueful, often charming, and always bracingly self-aware memoir, Fictional Selves, the actor Kyle MacLachlan reflects on filmmaking (for him, it all began when he was yanked from obscurity to star in the 1984 space opera Dune); fear...","tags":["Books"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/orpq0r40tkt2ftvy1dqulx0j86kt-325e981358c3bc695294164847766e39.jpg","author":{"name":"Joanne Kaufman"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/joanne-kaufman\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJoanne Kaufman\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":null,"shorts":false,"banner":"Books","category":"Books"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/dress-code/fashion/2026/9/trevor-houston","title":"Trevor Houston","content_text":"As a teenager, Trevor Houston was torn between a future in fashion and one in forensics. Those might seem miles apart, yet Houston’s interests in both fields came from the same place: the part of him that can obsess over just about anything. By day, he took science classes and dreamed of becoming a doctor; by night, he sketched shoes and indulged his voracious appetite for the arts, devouring Jeanne Moreau’s films and studying the sets in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. “I was kind of in my own bubble,” he says of his childhood in Beeville, Texas, a small town south of Austin, with a social-worker mother and an academic father. “I knew what I liked, and I knew what spoke to me.” ...","url":"https://airmail.news/dress-code/fashion/2026/9/trevor-houston","summary":"As a teenager, Trevor Houston was torn between a future in fashion and one in forensics. Those might seem miles apart, yet Houston’s interests in both fields came from the same place: the part of him that can obsess over...","tags":["Fashion","Close-up"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/8qp8bonnxfvwi7tec93i5ma1m031-af78bba33e8782886875f2478db0e08b.jpg","author":{"name":"Jeanne Malle"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/jeanne-malle\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eJeanne Malle\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"Meet the shoe designer bringing Herbert Levine’s storied past into the present","shorts":false,"banner":"Close-up","category":"Fashion"}},{"id":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-fashion-photographer-who-wasnt","title":"The Fashion Photographer Who Wasn’t","content_text":"“My father didn’t label himself as a fashion photographer,” muses Tom Penn, executive director of the Irving Penn Foundation. Among the thousands of prints making up the elder Penn’s oeuvre, still lifes, city shop fronts, and nudes are as ever present as svelte models and era-defining styles. Swooping hats and lacquered lips are matched by poached eggs and poppies, and the canons of couture meet Hell’s Angels, Sherpa climbers, and frontline soldiers. And yet, while Irving Penn may not have identified as a fashion photographer, fashion is elemental to his legacy, a fact the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) underscores in its 30th-anniversary exhibition “Penn \u0026 Fashion,” which opens next Wednesday in Paris. ...","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26/the-fashion-photographer-who-wasnt","summary":"“My father didn’t label himself as a fashion photographer,” muses Tom Penn, executive director of the Irving Penn Foundation. Among the thousands of prints making up the elder Penn’s oeuvre, still lifes, city shop fronts, and nudes are as ever...","tags":["Culture","Highlight"],"image":"https://photos.airmail.news/lwn1s0ci9tgr6f7se12hsiuqxkvu-c7d5fb1dc19793aeec489f3972037b9f.jpg","author":{"name":"Lacey Minot"},"date_published":"2026-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00","_issue":{"name":"September 26, 2026","date":"2026-09-26","url":"https://airmail.news/issues/2026-9-26"},"_article":{"byline_html":"\u003cem\u003eBy\u003c/em\u003e \u003ca href=\"/lacey-minot\" data-purpose=\"author\" class=\"text-inherit\"\u003eLacey Minot\u003c/a\u003e","subhead":"An exhibition in Paris examines Irving Penn’s profound influence on the genre he never quite claimed as his own","shorts":false,"banner":"Highlight","category":"Culture"}}]}