Is Your Data Safe from the Government?
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.In today’s newsletter, Ronan Farrow on troubling inventions in spyware, and then:The Northeast is now fire countryWhat Trump means for UkraineTech enters its cozy eraIllustration by Nicholas KonradThe Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your PhoneOther Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Could it happen here?Ronan Farrow, who has reported extensively on how political leaders have tracked their citizens, details the coming threats that Americans may face, as Donald Trump and his Administration will soon decide whether to curtail or expand the U.S. government’s use of “increasingly cheap and accessible” surveillance technology. “It’s just so evident—the impending disaster,” an expert on the intersection of privacy and tech explains to Farrow. “You may believe yourself not to be in one of the vulnerable categories, but you won’t know if you’ve ended up on a list for some reason or your loved ones have. Every single person should be worried.” Read the story »In the NewsPhotograph by Dakota Santiago / NYT / ReduxThe Northeast Is Becoming Fire CountryMaps of recent fires in the East Coast region resemble California in August, with hundreds of red dots. The current drought is adding to the threat; as a professional forester in New Jersey explains, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such perfect conditions for fire,” M. R. O’Connor reports on the past and future of blazes in a densely populated region that’s grown unaccustomed to reckoning with fires. Read the story »More Top StoriesShould a Country Speak a Single Language?The Complex Politics of Tribal EnrollmentHow Trump Could Change the Trajectory of the War in UkraineThe Fantasy of Cozy TechDaily Cartoon“I want to be in the moment, just not this moment.”Cartoon by Benjamin SchwartzCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today’s beginner-friendly puzzle. A clue: Cooking-competition show featuring Tom Colicchio as a judge. Seven letters.P.S. Donald Trump has named Mehmet Oz as his pick for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2016, ahead of the election, Trump visited Dr. Oz’s television show for what Michael Specter called a “Potemkin consultation,” in which the surgeon performed a weirdly perfunctory evaluation of Trump’s health. “They clearly deserve each other,” Specter noted of the pair, “but I am not quite sure the rest of us do.”
In today’s newsletter, Ronan Farrow on troubling inventions in spyware, and then:
The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone
Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other vulnerable groups. Could it happen here?
Ronan Farrow, who has reported extensively on how political leaders have tracked their citizens, details the coming threats that Americans may face, as Donald Trump and his Administration will soon decide whether to curtail or expand the U.S. government’s use of “increasingly cheap and accessible” surveillance technology. “It’s just so evident—the impending disaster,” an expert on the intersection of privacy and tech explains to Farrow. “You may believe yourself not to be in one of the vulnerable categories, but you won’t know if you’ve ended up on a list for some reason or your loved ones have. Every single person should be worried.” Read the story »
In the News
The Northeast Is Becoming Fire Country
Maps of recent fires in the East Coast region resemble California in August, with hundreds of red dots. The current drought is adding to the threat; as a professional forester in New Jersey explains, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such perfect conditions for fire,” M. R. O’Connor reports on the past and future of blazes in a densely populated region that’s grown unaccustomed to reckoning with fires. Read the story »
- Should a Country Speak a Single Language?
- The Complex Politics of Tribal Enrollment
- How Trump Could Change the Trajectory of the War in Ukraine
- The Fantasy of Cozy Tech
Daily Cartoon
P.S. Donald Trump has named Mehmet Oz as his pick for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2016, ahead of the election, Trump visited Dr. Oz’s television show for what Michael Specter called a “Potemkin consultation,” in which the surgeon performed a weirdly perfunctory evaluation of Trump’s health. “They clearly deserve each other,” Specter noted of the pair, “but I am not quite sure the rest of us do.”
