Syrians & Abuse

Featured Articles

Syrians in Turkey Agonize Over a Return Home

New York Times • 17 Jan 2025 • ~8100 words • Archive Link

With the Assad regime out of power, millions weigh the decision to go back to their war-torn country.

Inside the house, they were brought to stand in front of a Saudi man who would adjudicate their case — though Ahmad could still barely stay upright unsupported. Next to him, Areej’s face was completely hidden behind her niqab. The judge chastised Ahmad, saying that if he had honor, he wouldn’t have let his wife go outside with her face showing. When the judgment was pronounced, neither Ahmad nor Areej could comprehend the words, let alone imagine carrying out their meaning: Ahmad was to flog Areej — now, in front of them — 25 times on her back.

The Sex Abuse Scandal That’s Rocking Miss Hall’s, an Elite Berkshires Boarding School for Girls

Vanity Fair • 16 Jan 2025 • ~6900 words

Founded in 1898, Miss Hall’s School appears to be a cocoon of safety. But for decades, an alleged sexual predator operated on campus. Alumnae are speaking out in hopes of holding their former teacher—and the school—accountable.

To call out his behavior was to risk punishment. In 1997, Norris’s first year at the helm, student Lisa Fhagen blurted out in her senior class meeting that “Mr. Rutledge fucked” a fellow student. Fhagen says she was thrown out for “slander.” Silence—and silencing—continued to be the order of the day throughout Norris’s tenure. In 2009 student Bethany Fusini, Fares’s friend, told Norris she suspected that a different teacher was involved with a different student. She says Norris promptly led an assembly about the evils of gossiping and expelled Fusini.

Recommended Articles

Why is the FBI chasing elderly mobsters? 

The Economist • 17 Jan 2025 • ~5350 words • Archive Link

Today’s mafiosi are cash-strapped old men. The American government still throws the book at them.

The mob’s lack of dynamism is evident from the nature of recent prosecutions. Antonio Nicaso, an expert in organised crime, recently presented a paper to the United Nations in which he analysed federal indictments brought against New York’s five main Cosa Nostra families in the last decade. The crimes, he found, were almost all low-level: selling drugs, loan-sharking, gambling, racketeering, money-laundering. Nicaso doesn’t think the organisation is likely to reinvent itself – the average age of the Five Families’ bosses is now 68. “I don’t see any kind of evolution in what they are doing,” he said. Other organised crime experts point out that the mob’s decline is partly due to fundamental shifts in the drug business, which means it is unlikely to be reversed.

Little Quebec Was Built to Escape Winter. Now It’s Melting Away

The Walrus • 17 Jan 2025 • ~2900 words

A French snowbird’s quest to maintain his community in Florida, one motel at a time.

The properties have an aesthetic continuity: a low-vibration Québécois frequency underneath the Floridian kitsch of concrete reptiles and earthworks. Fences are adorned with Quebec licence plates, and a near-scale moose (which Clavet jammed into a commercial van alongside his kids and brought across the border) stands under palms next to Richard’s Motel Studios. Then there are the balançoires, a marvel of patio design featuring a canopy and two benches with an affixed table between them, the whole structure gliding back and forth along tracks underfoot. “They don’t sell these here in the States,” says Girard. “[Clavet] buys them in Quebec and brings them back.”

The penumbral plunge

Aeon • 17 Jan 2025 • ~3450 words

Diving into the ring of darkness beyond things easily answerable, asking ‘Why?’ questions is what make humans awesome.

Is science better and more profound than philosophy, more central to the specialness of Earth? Of course, science can extend our lifespans and empower us to transform the environment. But the longevity and power of one species isn’t what makes Earth special. Imagine longer-lived and more powerful bluebirds and kangaroos. Cool, for sure! But longevity and power are just more of what many species already possess. Consider instead, the profoundest achievements of science: the Copernican/Galilean/Newtonian revolution, Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, recent breakthroughs in genetics and neuroscience. All have transformed our understanding of the cosmos and our position within it. *That’s* what makes them so remarkable. The distinctive value of human science lies in its philosophical potency – its power to guide us toward the broadest and most foundational issues about ourselves and our Universe.

Who Plans?

Urban Omnibus • 16 Jan 2025 • ~6950 words

Over more than two decades, Hester Street expanded means and methods by which New Yorkers might shape their city. What does the nonprofit's demise mean for the practices of community planning and engagement in the future?

It was the kind of work that appealed to Frederick as an architect. People who were normally ignored when it came to designing spaces for them actually got to help shape their space. She came to work at Leroy Street Studio in 1998 with every intention to do more projects like that. Instead, she started out on high-end design projects. Frederick pushed Hare and Turkel about wanting to do more of the work she came there to do; in the meantime, she spent nights and weekends on the Lower East Side, helping residents design and build community gardens and outdoor theaters.

Rise and Fall of the Balloon Doctor

3 Quarks Daily • 15 Jan 2025 • ~2000 words

Steve Szilagyi writes about the story of Andreas Grüntzig, known as the "balloon doctor," who revolutionized cardiology with his invention of balloon angioplasty.

The cardiological establishment came to scoff, as they say, but stayed to pray—and to party. Andreas loved a good bash. His hard-nosed training sessions were always followed by memorably hard-drinking celebrations in exotic locales. This pattern might have reflected Andreas’ inner dynamics, where the intense care and focus required by his clinical work needed be followed by some kind of exuberant, even transgressive, release.

Where the Rivers Run Pink

bioGraphic • 11 Jan 2025 • ~5700 words

Non-native pink salmon have swarmed Norway’s rivers, prompting a relentless—and potentially fruitless—fight to beat back the invaders.

It feels as if we’re in a magical realm where the sun never sets, the hills roll, the rivers rollick, the sea skips, and unseen forces animate an ancient landscape. To the Samí people, the Indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, nature is magical: it’s both luohtu and luondu, physical and metaphysical, where beings and spirits call the landscape home. You can feel the rural pulse of life here: the sweet smell of black crowberries crunching underfoot, salmon ascending the rivers, white-tailed eagles patrolling the skies, moose traipsing across meadows, brown bears foraging in the company of clouds, rocks, trees, and water.