Spiegel Stuff: Vivian Wilson Strips Down; the First Amendment Tug-of-War; Kate Middleton’s Telling Accessory

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Vivian Wilson Strips Down; the First Amendment Tug-of-War; Kate Middleton’s Telling Accessory

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MATTHEW LYNCH,
EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Today on the "so it's come to this" beat: We are searching for glimmers of hope in emerging case law. VF contributor Cristian Farias writes about the case of Rümeysa Öztürk, recently freed from 45 days of detainment for having dared to express a view in a student newspaper. You may recall video of Öztürk being snatched from the suburban Boston streets by plainclothes federal agents. So while, as said video would suggest, things have not been great on the free-speech front these last few months, Farias is seeing some cause to think that the courts are upholding the US Constitution's big number one. Still, there's a long road to go here, as Farias reports: "Every one of these actions run headlong into the First Amendment; judges and lawsuits alone won't stop them. All of civic society must take courage, embrace a politics of solidarity, and resist them."

Elsewhere: Elon Musk's estranged daughter would prefer not to talk about her father's possible post-MAGA makeover (editor's note: fair), and we interview the undisputed king of the Bill Belichick–Jordon Hudson podcast game. More tomorrow!

Syria, After the Fall of Assad, Reawakens From Its Half-Century Nightmare

BY JANINE DI GIOVANNI

In December, veteran war correspondent Janine di Giovanni was awakened by a Syrian friend, in tears, who told her the news: Assad had been overthrown. And so she went back to the country for the first time in a over a decade. In late winter, with snow still on the mountains, she crossed the border from Lebanon into Syria. The cheerful man at passport control smiled and said, "You have not been in Damascus since 2012. I understand why." This was code, meaning that her name was on a list. He verified what di Giovanni already knew. Had she crossed this same border in earlier days, she would have been imprisoned, or worse.

Returning to a newly liberated Syria, di Giovanni discovers a nation flush with hope, wary of its untested leaders, and haunted by decades of torture and trauma.

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EXCLUSIVE

Elon Musk's Estranged Daughter on Becoming an Underwear Model

BY KASE WICKMAN

In conversation with VF's Kase Wickman, Vivian Jenna Wilson admitted that she was "terrified" to strip down for the campaign—and revealed what she would do if she were the hypothetical parent of her father's AI bot.

ROYALS

A Clue in Kate Middleton's Garden Party Accessory?

BY ERIN VANDERHOOF

The princess returns with an item she wore to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding—a day after their anniversary.

The Rule of Law

BY CRISTIAN FARIAS

From all sides, the Trump administration is setting fire to the First Amendment.

As legal affairs contributor Cristian Farias wrote two months ago, as goes Mahmoud Khalil or Rümeysa Öztürk, so go the rest of us. "If the government can imprison them over their views—or for writing about issues in the national interest, as many journalists do—it can imprison anyone. It can imprison me." The good news is there are glimmers of hope within the judicial system.