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A Chaotic Day In The Life Of The Photographers At The Tour de France
CHALON-SUR-SAÔNE, France — Roughly 15 minutes after driving past the start line, Harry Talbot decides it's time to pull over next to a field of droopy sunflowers. He scouted the route of Stage 11 of the Tour de France kilometer by kilometer earlier this year on Google Street View to identify potential spots where he and his fellow photographers could set up their shots, and we'd arrived at the first of the day. To my eye, the sunflower field is perfect. To Talbot , Zac Williams , and Max Fr...
The Yzerplan Failed, So It’s Time For Plan Z In Detroit
When Steve Yzerman took over as Red Wings general manager in 2019, the state of Michigan embraced him as the man who would return their hockey team to glory, or at least clean up the mess Ken Holland left behind. Some of that was nostalgia for the time he was the Wings' captain, helping them hoist three Stanley Cups. But it was based on something more tangible, too: Yzerman was coming from Tampa, and the Lightning's team-building in the 2010s was of the finest caliber. For his entire hockey ca...
PEN America’s “Silent Moratorium” Prompts Very Loud Criticism
PEN America president Dinaw Mengestu resigned from his position this past Thursday after the troubled free-expression organization published a report reaffirming its opposition to cultural boycotts. The report, titled "A Silent Moratorium," recounts anecdotes from editors, agents, and writers who describe "rising isolation and exclusion" faced by Israeli and Jewish authors. Mengestu saw the report as dangerously and falsely categorizing the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement—which s...
Who’s Afraid Of A Scammer Anthem?
Welcome to Listening Habits , a column where I share the music and musical topics I’ve been fixated on recently. The rap song of the summer is undoubtedly Yung Miami's "Spend Dat." Produced by J. White Did It, the gloriously maximalist strip-club banger celebrates the joys of spending illegally acquired funds. It is a perfect summer rap record, and is also the perfect pop song for our moment of grift and speculative bubbles. We've all come to understand that the economy is an Oz with no ...
You Have To Kill Argentina Dead
Argentina is in the World Cup final for a second straight tournament. Somehow, some way, that is a true statement. After Cape Verde put the fear of god into the reigning champions, after Egypt had a 2-0 lead as late as the 79th minute , after Switzerland equalized and looked on the front foot in the quarterfinal , and after England scored first in Wednesday's semifinal, through it all, Argentina exhibited the kind of survival skills most often associated with crocodiles and Real Madrid in the ...
What It’s Like To Watch The World Cup From Gaza
The original version of this article was published in The Nation on July 13. When I first heard the 2026 World Cup was about to begin, I barely paid attention. This was partially because of the timing—most matches this year have aired late at night in Gaza because of the time difference with the United States—but mostly because I couldn't imagine how anyone here would watch the games.
New Monkey! New Monkey! There’s A New Monkey!
Many new species have been announced this week. There are new mites from Saudi Arabia and a new weevil from Japan. There are new midges from China and new spiders from Brazil and China . There is a new dragonfly from Vietnam, a new jewel beetle from Borneo, and a grasshopper from Ecuador. Each of these creatures is no doubt beautiful in their own right. And yet, none of them are monkeys. Seemingly every week science announces new midges, new spiders, new spineless hopping things that hadn't be...
The Groom Saw You From Across The Dance Floor And Likes Your Vibe
As an anxious and judgmental person whose standards for interpersonal etiquette and social niceties might best be described as Austenesque, I can confidently say: Every wedding is rife with social crimes. I’ve seen more than my share of dads make speeches about mawwiage , and I’ve seen a few chill brides set everyone in their vicinity tiptoeing (often rightly so), and I’ve watched whole tables full of relatives seethe about their placement. As far as I’m concerned, weddings encourage self-cari...
Trans Girl Baseball Makes Me A Better Woman
Taking care to avoid the team-picking system of our schoolyard memories, Lilah Maravi divided us into two sides of about 20. It was a pleasant Sunday in June—Father’s Day—and we had gathered at our usual spot for our Pride month game. After a spontaneous game of catch in a Brooklyn park in 2023, Lilah had started this monthly pickup series with a Field of Dreams -esque compulsion to get trans women together to play baseball. That might sound counterintuitive. Many of us were unathletic yout...
Which Version Of The Indiana Fever Is The Real One?
Aliyah Boston's teammate drives so much of the American population insane that it's easy to forget her own talent for getting in other people's heads. Opposing bigs unravel next to her. Jonquel Jones, possibly the nicest and humblest athlete I've ever spoken to, revealed the limits of her patience two years ago when she tussled with Boston in the Indiana Fever's home opener . Expect a technical foul or two whenever Boston and Brittney Griner play. Remember Boston's playoff spat with Brio...
The All-Star Game Was Funereal
We'll start with the most significant play of the 2026 MLB All-Star Game: a hit batsman. In the top of the third, with a man on first and the AL already leading 3-0, Tampa's Junior Caminero got smacked on the hand by a 98-mph pitch from St. Louis's Riley O’Brien. Caminero was replaced by a pinch runner as he left to get X-rays, and immediately the day's earlier news that the owners would try to force players to participate in the 2028 Olympics looked even more ridiculous. While Caminero's exam...
Is It Possible To Teach My Kid How To Manage Risk?
Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas , where a member of Defector's Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life. Have a question? Email us at [email protected] . This week, Drew talks about danger .
Spain’s Perfect Game Needed A Perfect Goal
Having sat with Spain's 2-0 victory over France in the World Cup semifinal for several hours now, I am left with an overwhelming sense of relief. Not because Spain won or France lost, but because the game's second goal was as beautiful as it was. Whether or not you watched the game, you need to do yourself a favor and watch this goal several more times before the day is done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBOIka9sXlQ
Various Reports Dispute Where Bam Adebayo’s Fist Landed On Tyler Herro’s Face
This past Friday in Vegas, while many players were in town for NBA Summer League action, Miami Heat big man Bam Adebayo got in some kind of fight with his recently departed teammate Tyler Herro. In last month's trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Heat sent Herro to the Milwaukee Bucks, ending his seven-year stint alongside Adebayo. The fight between them took place in the morning, in a practice court at a hotel; later that day but before news broke of the fight, Herro said in an interview tha...
Atlantic Writer: I Will Always Cherish The Day Lindsey Graham Told Me I Looked Like Shit Mere Hours After A Mass Shooting
Lindsey Graham's sudden death has elicited plenty of nauseating remembrances from his colleagues in the Senate, none of whom seemed to be all that ashamed to speak and write warmly about a guy whose life's work was bigotry and warmongering. But no tribute has been as bone-chilling as the one offered up Monday night by Atlantic staff writer Ashley Parker. Here's how Parker decided to remember the man she used to cover while working for The New York Times : Like anyone who’s spent any ti...
I Crave The Ocean
Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag . You can also read Drew over at SFGATE , and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it . Today, we're talking about dipping pizza crust, worst great athletes, wheelchair envy, and more. Your letters: Charlie:
‘Citizen Vigilante’ Is The Latest Product Of The Culture Of Petulance
In the movie Citizen Vigilante , the latest Uwe Boll provocation that's gaining attention from the far-right side of the internet, Armie Hammer plays Michael Sanders, an American vigilante righting the wrongs of Europe's woke and broken criminal justice system. Why an American has deemed himself worthy of this task, let's not ask that question ... or too many others. When he's not out patrolling the streets, Sanders makes his living as a landlord. One sequence of scenes shows Sanders in one mo...
Why The Explosive Diarrhea Parasite Is Way Worse Than Regular Diarrhea Parasites
Grab a stool, take a seat, and get ready to learn about cyclospora.
‘Famous Men’ And Ambitious Women
Is there a story writers love to tell more than the one about how we became ourselves? Give me all of them: your Künstlerromans, your campus novels, your NYCs, your MFAs. I didn’t go to Iowa, but I’ve read so many recollections of the program that sometimes I think I might have. The pleasures of the genre arise in part from how its entrants play with certain tropes: the struggle to find one’s voice, the anxiety of influence, the labor of constructing an identity, the implicit resolution promis...
How Cycling Solved Sleep
AURILLAC, France — Is the Tour de France the most competitive sleep environment in sports? "Probably, yeah," answered Dr. Jon Greenwell, EF-Education EasyPost's Head Doctor when I asked him. Every athlete needs to recover, though the demands on professional cyclists at the biggest race in the sport are unique. Riders have to be fresh every day for nearly a month, and they spend almost every night at a different hotel. There are only two days off, so they must recover from one day's effort befo...
What Will Happen To My Ambition After Children?
To someone without children, the world of parenthood seems like a walled garden that contains knowledge of the very best and worst experiences of humanity. But will you love it or hate it? Are you still yourself on the other side? Will you regret it? The only way to know for sure is to do it, but you can't know for sure how it'll go until you commit to it. That's a level of ambiguity I find intolerable, and yet there is no other way. I always imagined I would maybe, probably, most likely ha...
The Hornets Aspire To Be An Also-Ran With A Plan
Listening to Jeff Peterson, president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets, talk about the recent LaMelo Ball trade , you get a pretty good idea of what he thinks about last season's team. "There's no doubt in my mind that we had a successful season last year, by a lot of people's standards, and of course LaMelo was a huge part of that," Peterson said, from Las Vegas , upon the formal completion of a deal announced nearly two weeks ago. Eager to sing the praises of the incoming N...
Is There Any Limit To Zack Wheeler’s Spite?
There are four players in MLB with a higher bWAR than Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, but nobody can hope to top him in PAR (pettiness above replacement). Last week, after he was left off of the All-Star Game roster, Wheeler struck out 14 batters to tie his career-best performance. To make it very clear where his motivation came from, after the game he called the All-Star selection policies “BS.” Wheeler turned his doubters into his outers at the pitching mound of success, but he’s not done. ...
If Conor McGregor Was A Horse, They’d Have To Shoot Him
Conor McGregor came up lame literally one second into Saturday’s comeback bout with Max Holloway. To open a fight that the UFC claimed drew the biggest live gate in mixed martial arts history, McGregor rushed out of his corner and threw a flying kick with his left leg. The kick fell short of Holloway’s head by at least a foot, and then McGregor had a landing worthy of the " agony of defeat " guy, dropping to the cage floor in a heap without being touched. Then McGregor immediately got up an...
I Believe I Have Located A Ham Truck In France
SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF FRANCE — They call it the diagonal of the void: the corridor running southwest to northeast across France where population density is significantly lower than elsewhere in the country. Explanations vary as to why, though after spending three nights in the void, I can confirm it feels empty here. Perhaps the spookiest sight was something I saw on the side of the road as we drove from Perigueux to Bergerac, on the side of a road in a village so quiet it may as well hav...
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