Articles

Jeff Bezos throws the Washington Post under the bus

When Donald Trump became president for the first time, the editor of the Washington Post at the time, Martin Baron, said that the newspaper was “not at war but at work.” At the same time, its ultrawealthy new owner, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, seemed to embrace the newspaper’s role as one of the country’s political watchdog,…

Giorgia Meloni — The Shapeshifter

In mid-June, Giorgia Meloni was in an exultant mood while hosting theG7 summit, a gathering of the world’s most powerful nations, in thesouthern Italian region of Apulia. After days in which she presided overmeetings speaking English, French and Spanish along with her nativeItalian, one evening she danced the pizzica – a traditional Apulian dance –twirling…

What a Murder by Mussolini Teaches Us About Khashoggi and M.B.S. (NY Times, Oct. 23, 2018)

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis has striking parallels with the murder of the Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti by Fascist thugs. In the weeks after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, a question has been repeatedly asked: How could the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, be so…

The Last Slaves of Mauritania, NY Review of Books, Nov 23, 2017

You can both see the desert and feel its presence in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, which goes months at a time without rain. Although it is a city of one million people, rivulets of sand collect along the main paved thoroughfares of the city center, in front of a handful of government buildings and…

The Trump Card, The National Law Journal May 16, 1988

Nearly thirty years ago in my early days as a reporter, I did a long story for the National Law Journal on Donald Trump’s aggressive use of litigation. Among other things, it shows his well-developed habit of stiffing contractors who work for him, recently re-reported in a fine story by USA today http://usat.ly/1TY1QLb. Re-reading this…