Former President Donald Trump's lie about election fraud unleashed a movement that shattered democratic norms. Photo / Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump's lie about election fraud unleashed a movement that shattered democratic norms. Photo / Getty Images
Welcome to the weekend.
Settle down with a cuppa and catch up on some of the best content from our premium syndicators this week.
Happy reading.
77 days: Trump's campaign to subvert the election
Hours after the United States voted, President Trump declared the election a fraud — a liethat unleashed a movement that would shatter democratic norms and upend the peaceful transfer of power.
President Donald J. Trump, in the early hours after election night, called the votes against him "a fraud on the American public." Photo / Doug Mills, The New York Times
Jordan Peterson on depression, drug dependency and Russian rehab hell
I thought this was going to be a normal interview with Jordan Peterson. After speaking with him at length, and with his daughter for even longer, I no longer have any idea what it is. I don't know if this is a story about drug dependency, or doctors, or Peterson family dynamics — or a parable about toxic masculinity. Whatever else it is, it's very strange.
Jordan Peterson in February 2019. Photo / Getty Images
Foo Fighters wanted to rule rock. 25 years later, they're still roaring
Dave Grohl has done so much throughout his career — drummed for Nirvana, arguably the biggest band of its generation; led Foo Fighters, one of the most successful acts of the past three decades; sold out Wembley Stadium, twice; played on the White House lawn; interviewed the sitting president of the United States; broke his leg during a show and finished the show with the broken leg; entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with another induction likely on the way; recorded with both living Beatles; appeared on The Muppets, also twice — that when you ask him what's left, he takes a moment.
Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Rami Jaffee and Nate Mendel. The band's new album, Medicine at Midnight, is a slight pivot. Photo / Magdalena Wosinska, The New York Times
A vast web of vengeance: When online lies destroy lives
Guy Babcock vividly remembers the chilly Saturday evening when he discovered the stain on his family. It was September 2018. He, his wife and their young son had just returned to their home. Babcock still had his coat on when he got a frantic call from his father.
"I don't want to upset you, but there is some bad stuff on the internet," Babcock recalled his father saying. Someone, somewhere, had written terrible things online about Guy Babcock and his brother, and members of their 86-year-old father's social club had alerted him.
Babcock got off the phone and Googled himself. The results were full of posts on strange sites accusing him of being a thief, a fraudster and a paedophile.
Guy Babcock discovered the power of a lone person to destroy countless reputations. Photo / The New York Times
'I'm still in trauma': Khashoggi's fiancée on his brutal murder
The Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was smiling as he made his way towards his country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on the afternoon of October 2, 2018. He was happy. He was in love. He was planning a wedding.
The smile would not have lingered long on Khashoggi's face when he saw who was there to meet him inside the consulate — a 15-member hit squad of Saudi government agents. After the Saudis suffocated their victim, a government physician dismembered him with a bone saw in the consulate "media room". His remains have never been found.
People take part in a candle light vigil to remember journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in 2018. Photo / Getty Images
The Silicon Valley startup that caused Wall Street chaos
The online trading app Robinhood became a cultural phenomenon and a Silicon Valley darling with a promise to wrest the stock market away from Wall Street's traditional gatekeepers and "let the people trade" — making it as easy to put millions of dollars at risk as it is to summon an Uber.
Last week, in the middle of a market frenzy pitting amateur traders against hedge fund bigwigs, that veneer began to chip. As it turned out, Robinhood was at the mercy of the very industry it had vowed to upend.
Baiju Bhatt and Vladimir Tenev, the co-founders of Robinhood, at their office in Palo Alto, California, in 2016. The duo promised to democratise trading. Photo / Aaron Wojack, The New York Times
The case of the serial sperm donor
In 2015, Vanessa van Ewijk, a carpenter in the Netherlands, decided that she wanted to have a child. She was 34 and single, and so, like many women, she sought out a sperm donor.
She considered conceiving through a fertility clinic, but the cost was prohibitive for her. Instead, she found an ideal candidate through a website called Desire for a Child, his name was Jonathan Jacob Meijer.
In 2017, when she decided to conceive again, she reached out once more to Meijer.
Even before then, however, van Ewijk learned some unsettling news. Meijer had fathered at least 102 children in the Netherlands through numerous fertility clinics, a tally that did not include his private donations through websites.
Vanessa van Ewijk and her two children in Lisserbroek, the Netherlands. "How do I tell my kids that they could possibly have 300 siblings?" she said. Photo / Ilvy Njiokiktjien, The New York Times
Should Covid vaccines be mandatory at work?
On May 4, a new cruise ship called the Spirit of Adventure is due to leave the English port of Dover on a maiden voyage like no other.
The vessel's owner, Britain's over-50s holiday and insurance group Saga, is one of the first large businesses to make Covid jabs mandatory for its customers. No one will be allowed on board unless they are fully vaccinated against coronavirus — or rather, almost no one.
Some companies have compulsory vaccination policies - but is it legal? Photo / AP
The down side to life in a supertall tower: Leaks, creaks, breaks
The nearly 426 metre tower at 432 Park Ave., briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York's luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fuelled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns.
Six years later, residents of the exclusive tower are now at odds with the developers, and each other, making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living.
Resident complaints at 432 Park are revealing strife inside one of the New York's most secretive and exclusive towers. Photo / Karsten Moran, The New York Times
As Jeff Bezos steps aside, what comes next for Amazon?
The news that Jeff Bezos would step aside as Amazon's chief executive was a surprise, but there were signs it may have been on his mind for some time.
With little sign of a horse race, Andy Jassy, the current head of Amazon's cloud computing division, will step up to be the new chief executive.
Amazon insisted that Bezos, as executive chairman, would only be involved in what it described as "one-way door" decisions, from which there is no turning back.
