The Air Mail Archive: Every weekly issue

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

Issue No. 294

March 1, 2025

ALL ABOUT ANNIE

From debating over titles (such as Anhedonia and It Had to Be Jew) to re-shooting the “cocaine sneeze,” Woody Allen and his editing team look back on the making of Annie Hall

VOTE OF OVERCONFIDENCE

Even anti-woke warriors are having doubts as Trump replaces D.E.I. with his own brand of affirmative action, dependent on clumsy loyalty and obsequiousness

THE HOT SEAT

Hotelier André Balazs reflects on the Valentine’s Day fire that destroyed the Chiltern Firehouse—his starry London hotel—and why we shouldn’t write it off just yet

Issue No. 293

February 22, 2025

WHO LET THE DOGE OUT?

Elon Musk and his DOGE task force’s destruction of agencies from the National Science Foundation to N.I.H. is at odds with the massive government loan that got Tesla off the ground

FUNNY BUSINESS

Chris Rock! Amy Poehler! Will Ferrell! Tina Fey! In an excerpt from Susan Morrison’s biography of Lorne Michaels, cast members from S.N.L.’s last five decades look back on Michaels’s unconventional hiring process

BAILED OUT

By leaving her ex-husband, Harvey Weinstein, for Oscar front-runner Adrien Brody, Georgina Chapman has swapped the worst of Hollywood for its best—and wiped her #MeToo-tarnished reputation squeaky-clean

Issue No. 292

February 15, 2025

LOST IN CONSTELLATION

Howard Blum investigates how a pair of career astronauts were left stranded in space—and how Elon Musk, of all people, has emerged as their knight in shining armor

DIRTY MONEY

Up until a few months ago, the U.S. was a leader in the fight against global corruption. Now Trump’s Justice Department cuts are playing straight into the hands of a crooked foreign elite

MAR-A-GAZA

Nearly 30 years after Paolo Zampolli first introduced Donald Trump to Melania, the former modeling agent has kept a foot in the gates of Mar-a-Lago

Issue No. 291

February 8, 2025

COURTING DISASTER

Despite his high-profile career arguing before the Supreme Court, Tom Goldstein was able to keep his poker addiction out of the public eye—until a recent federal investigation revealed his life to be more Uncut Gems than Law & Order

HOLLYWOOD BLOODBATH

What began as online buzz about Blake Lively failing to pose with Justin Baldoni at a movie premiere has erupted into one of the ugliest scandals in Hollywood—and it just won’t stop

THE POWER BROKER

Normal American politicians typically admire Lincoln, or F.D.R., or Reagan. Not Trump, who instead holds Meade Esposito—an old-time machine boss who ran the Brooklyn Democratic Party for 15 years—in the highest regard

Issue No. 290

February 1, 2025

FRAUGHT TOPIC

In an interview with Johanna Berkman, former U.N. special adviser Alice Nderitu discusses Israel’s war against Hamas and her decision not to call it a genocide

THE ART OF THE STEAL

Donald Trump once called crypto a “scam.” Now he’s released his own $TRUMP memecoin for seemingly no other reason than to fleece his own fan base

UP IN SMOKE

Comparisons between modern-day America and the declining Roman Empire are numerous—especially when it comes to the Los Angeles wildfires and Pompeii’s fiery end

Issue No. 289

January 25, 2025

GOING FOR WOKE

As popular sentiment on diversity, equity, and inclusion shifts, Donald Trump’s war on woke may well backfire—and alienate even MAGA voters

LAND OF THE #FREELUIGI

Bethany McLean explores how UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. Brian Thompson became a scapegoat for American rage

MOGULS ON MARS!

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have emerged as chief competitors in the realm of space technology—through strategies that couldn’t be more different

Issue No. 288

January 18, 2025

HOT TOPIC

Amid the tragic wildfires that continue to ravage Los Angeles, Scott Z. Burns asks, Will we ever put our capitalist incentives aside and focus on preventing disasters before they occur?

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

In Russia, where even printing the word “war” in a book could draw the government’s ire, publishers and writers are struggling to navigate the blurred but omnipresent lines of censorship

FRENCH FIEND

In the wake of the highly publicized rape trial that rocked France, Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian, looks back on when she discovered her father’s horrific abuse

Issue No. 287

January 11, 2025

LETTER FROM L.A.

Architect Geoffrey von Oeyen—whose Malibu Horizon House was lost in the Woolsey Fire—shares his vision for rebuilding the city after this week’s devastation

THE SOCIAL NETJERK

Ever willing to acquiesce to political tides, Mark Zuckerberg this week axed Meta’s fact-checking program. According to a former Facebook fact-checker, a flood of misinformation is sure to abound

DOG-AND-PONY SHOW

Now that Prince Harry’s foray into television has royally flopped, Meghan Markle is stepping into the ring with a streaming series of her own. God help us all

Issue No. 286

January 4, 2025

THAT’S THE SPIRIT!

Why are monks so impossibly happy? According to Pico Iyer, who has regularly decamped to a monastery in Big Sur for more than three decades, it’s because they tune out society—from TV to Trumpism

PRIME TARGETS

Clutch your pearls! Not even the Windsors are safe from a series of burglaries that have targeted the world’s most high-profile people, Prince William and Kim Kardashian among them

TIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Bonnie and Clyde! Bullitt! Theadora Van Runkle’s costume designs didn’t just net her Oscar nominations; they also influenced the fashion world at large

Issue No. 285

December 28, 2024

BADGE OF DISHONOR

Who else could’ve won this year’s Attention Whore title but the defending champion and president-elect? Alongside Trump’s predictable victory, we look back on a year of brazen narcissism

STORMY WEATHER

Despite what Republican lawmakers would have you believe, Mother Nature is in an uproar—and things are only going to get worse. Herewith, a look back at recent climate disasters

IN MEMORIAM

Alain Delon, Quincy Jones, Françoise Hardy, Maggie Smith, Ethel Kennedy, Bob Newhart … as 2024 comes to a close, we raise a toast to some of this year’s dearly departed

Issue No. 284

December 21, 2024

PAPACY PURLOINED

Despite a global publishing-industry effort to keep it under wraps, an advance manuscript of Pope Francis’s upcoming autobiography has been stolen and leaked online—and book-world insiders think they know who did it

GUESS WHO’S SPOILING DINNER?

The difficulties of hosting a successful dinner party are not lost on Cazzie David, who suggests taking a page out of her father Larry’s book

DOUBLE SHOT

From the assassination of her husband John F. Kennedy to being thrust into the public eye, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis didn’t live an easy life. Her court case against the ruthless paparazzo Ron Galella was no exception

Issue No. 283

December 14, 2024

THE NAME OF THE GAME

For much of his life, Rich Cohen felt as though his name was holding him back. That is, until he attended a party filled entirely with other Richard Cohens

ESCAPE CLAN

Following a heinous 50-year regime, the murderous Assad family has at last been run out of Syria—and into the unwelcoming arms of Vladimir Putin

VACCINES, AND VAPES, AND PERSONAL TRUTHS, OH MY!

Is The Bear actually good? Does monogamy get a bad rap? Our inaugural Over-Under List weighs in on the 2024 hype

Issue No. 282

December 7, 2024

HELL IN A HARRODS BAG

As rape and sexual-assault allegations continue to mount against Mohamed Al-Fayed, a former employee reflects on the deplorable tyrant’s office manner and the relationship between his son Dodi and Princess Diana

FRIGHT IS RIGHT

The resurgence of Trump and his right-wing ethos is far from just an American phenomenon—governments everywhere, from Georgia to Israel to South Korea, are following a similar path

DESIGN FOR LIVING

From Tom Wolfe’s LSD stories to a legendary Bob Dylan poster, Push Pin Studios’ eclectic, inimitable graphic-design style revolutionized an art form, explains Ash Carter

Issue No. 281

November 30, 2024

HOT OUT OF THE OVEN

Every Brit has an opinion on Gail’s, London’s hottest—and most controversial—bakery chain. Bridget Arsenault goes straight to the notoriously reserved source: Gail, of Gail’s

DÉJÀ BOO-HOO

Cancel The Apprentice! Tie his shoelaces together! In light of a second Trump presidency, we can only fantasize about what a time machine could’ve done to prevent it

HOLDING COURT

Marcia Clark—the lead prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson case—revisits the infamous 1955 Barbara Graham murder trial and the errors that plagued it

Issue No. 280

November 23, 2024

AT FAULT?

Jannik Sinner, the Italian tennis wunderkind, has swatted down opponents with ease since reaching his World No. 1 ranking. Now a recent drug test could tarnish his legacy forever

SURVIVOR, ROGUE-STATE EDITION

Stealing rhino horns and smuggling illegal booze are just some of the things diplomats of North Korea and other countries have resorted to in an attempt to keep their foreign embassies alive

THE GOD OF THE POD

British former soccer star Gary Lineker reveals how he re-invented himself as a media mogul with a successful podcast empire covering history, politics, entertainment, and, not surprisingly, sports

Issue No. 279

November 16, 2024

SLIPPERY BUSINESS

How did Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water company, manage to fall $20 billion in debt—despite their monopoly over the most in-demand product in the world? Jonathan Margolis investigates

THE VOICE OF REASON

In an interview with Jim Kelly, veteran political columnist Peggy Noonan talks all things Trump, from the note he sent her in his signature Sharpie to the conditions that led to his victory

DEVIL OF THE NIGHT

Just when you thought the trial of Dominique Pelicot—a Frenchman who drugged his wife so other men could rape her—couldn’t get more abhorrent, his daughter reveals he may have done the same to her

Issue No. 278

November 9, 2024

DEPRAVED NEW WORLD

With Donald Trump and his supporters firmly at America’s helm, we mustn’t forget the importance of character when it comes to leading—and saving—our country, write AIR MAIL Co-Editors Alessandra Stanley and Graydon Carter

BEER UNDER THE BRIDGE

Among the 20 nuns who run a much-beloved brewery in Belgium hides Sister Gertrude, a humble Christ follower who also happened to facilitate massacres during the Rwandan genocide

NOT-SO-HOLLYWOOD ENDING

Greta Garbo! Charlie Chaplin! Quentin Tarantino! They’ve all stayed at the Krotona apartments, a once coveted L.A. getaway that’s now fallen prey to dilapidation and neighborhood infighting

Issue No. 277

November 2, 2024

BOOMER BUST

No one holds more responsibility for the state of the country than the baby-boomer generation, write reluctant members Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley

NOT-SO-SMOOTH SAILING

An influx of cruise ships has sent the WASP-y town of Bar Harbor, Maine, into a frenzy. Now a group of locals is fighting back

HEAD IN THE CLOUD

How an employee at the elite Kent boarding school allegedly stole personal photos from dozens of female students’ laptops—and almost got away with it

Issue No. 276

October 26, 2024

MILLION-DOLLAR-SHOE MYSTERY

Mark Seal hits the yellow brick road in search of Judy Garland’s missing Wizard of Oz slippers, whose theft uncovered a cast of memorable characters—and a years-long F.B.I. investigation

BRAVE NEW WORLD

A quarter-century ago, protests against the World Trade Organization saw more than 40,000 progressives fight globalization. How did their cause become a defining rallying cry of Trumpism?

CLOSET DIARIES

When Lili Anolik set out to write a book about Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, she didn’t expect to discover new clues about John Gregory Dunne’s rumored homosexuality. Anolik reveals all in an exclusive excerpt