It’s Wednesday, May 13. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Suzy Weiss asks, you’re shocked by Sydney Sweeney? Really? Joe Nocera speaks with Alex Berenson after his free-speech victory. Peter Berkowitz on the right-wingers opposed to America’s founding values. And more.
But first: Trump’s meeting with Xi.
President Trump lands in Beijing today for his first visit to China in his second term. The agenda could hardly be more consequential. On the table: the war in Iran, trade, AI, political prisoners, and Taiwan. This morning we have two stories on the summit’s stakes.
The first comes from two people for whom the summit could determine their father’s freedom. Sebastien and Claire Lai’s father, Jimmy, is the 78-year-old Hong Kong publisher convicted of sedition and colluding with foreign forces for publishing a pro-democracy newspaper. He has spent years in solitary confinement, his health deteriorating and his family limited to 30 minutes of visitation per week. Today, they appeal directly to the president who they believe can free him. “When Air Force One lands back in the United States,” they write, “we pray our father is on that plane.” Read their message in full:
Perhaps the most important item on the agenda in Beijing is Taiwan. Tanner Nau asked four China experts about that all-important issue and what this week’s talks might change. Their answers range from cautiously hopeful to seriously alarmed. Read their takes here:
—The Editors
Does Sydney Sweeney Make You Uncomfortable? |
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It feels like America loses its mind over Sydney Sweeney approximately once a week. This time, it’s over the latest antics of her character on Euphoria, Cassie, dressing up as a sexy dog, and then a baby, to grow her online following. Somehow, people are surprised. Suzy Weiss says they shouldn’t be: The show is designed to make “normal people” uncomfortable. Plus, “isn’t it a little fun, in 2026, to learn that after every taboo has been broken, you can still be shocked?” | | |
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Two Drinks with . . . Alex Berenson |
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The Trump administration just settled Biden v. Berenson—forcing the federal government to admit it violated the First Amendment by pressuring Twitter to ban Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter who was one of the loudest skeptics of Covid vaccines and mandates. It’s a landmark victory that’s barely made a ripple in the mainstream press. Joe Nocera sat down with Berenson to get the full story. | | |
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The Elites Who Want to Burn It Down |
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American politics can sometimes feel like a fight between two camps who want to burn it all down. The postmodern left and the “post-liberal” right disagree on a lot, but they share a contempt for the values on which America was founded. Political thinker Peter Berkowitz takes aim at both camps in his latest essay for The Free Press. The solution, he writes, is to ignore the intellectuals preaching revolution from positions of bourgeois comfort, and recommit to the principles that still undergird the American project 250 years after its founding. | | |
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