After Zac Brettler mysteriously fell to his death in the Thames, his parents, Matthew and Rachelle, discovered that he’d been posing as an oligarch’s son, including in dealings with Akbar Shamji and Verinder (Dave )Sharma. Patrick Radden Keefe reports on the case’s many complexities, including an oddly curtailed police investigation.
How a Homegrown Teen Gang Punctured the Image of an Upscale Community
The authorities didn’t seem to pay attention to the Gilbert Goons until one boy was dead and seven others were charged with murder, Rachel Monroe writes.
Kanye West Bought an Architectural Treasure—Then Gave It a Violent Remix
After the rapper purchased a concrete beach house in Malibu, designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, he hired Tony Saxon to demolish parts of the structure, guided by Bianca Censori. Ian Parker reports.
Why So Many People Are Going “No Contact” with Their Parents
Anna Russell on a growing movement to destigmatize going “no contact” with one’s relatives. Is it a much-needed corrective, or a worrisome change in family relations?
Ina Garten Talks About Her Life, Her Marriage, and Her New Memoir
With her new memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” the star of the Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa” and “Be My Guest” looks back on her troubled childhood, her East Hampton store, her collaboration with Martha Stewart, and her marriage to Jeffrey.
A Professor Claimed to Be Native American. Did She Know She Wasn’t?
Jay Caspian Kang reports on Elizabeth Hoover, a so-called Pretendian who has taught at Brown and Berkeley and who insists that she made an honest mistake. Her critics says she has been lying for more than a decade.
Drug syndicates and other criminal groups bought into the idea that a new kind of phone network couldn’t be infiltrated by cops. They were wrong—big time. Ed Caesar reports.
Jay Caspian Kang on how advances in photographic technology and abounding catastrophic images during war or disasters may numb viewers to the horrors of such events.
From the Middle East, David Remnick reports on the Hamas attack, air strikes in Gaza, Palestinian life under occupation in the West Bank, and the failures of Benjamin Netanyahu and of Israeli intelligence.
Jia Tolentino writes about therapy addressing climate-change-related grief and anxiety, and about ways activists manage the emotional toll of their work and what they observe about a changing planet.
Offsetting is hailed as a fix for climate catastrophe—but the world’s biggest carbon firm, South Pole, sold millions of worthless credits to Gucci, Porsche, Nestlé, and many others. Heidi Blake reports.
Zadie Smith writes: I did everything I could to avoid writing my historical novel. When I finally started “The Fraud,” one principle was clear: no Charles Dickens.
