Politics

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesIt’s been six years since Bari Weiss published a long, glossy, and much-discussed New York Times profile, titled, “Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web.” The subheading declared an “alliance of heretics is making an end run around the mainstream conversation” and asked: “Should we be listening?”Despite the occasional caveat throughout almost 3,700 words, Weiss made it clear that her answer to this question was “Yes.”Weiss listed “three distinct qualities” that members of the IDW shared: their commitment to civil discourse, even about controversial subjects; their fearless pursuit of the truth, regardless of what was “politically convenient”; and their expulsion from “institutions that have become increasingly hostile to unorthodox thought.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Courtesy of Uninterrupted“I think every community embraced that shoe: hustlers, drug dealers,” Pharrell Williams says near the beginning of the new documentary Who Is Stan Smith?, about the legendary tennis star whose Adidas sneaker bearing his name (and face) became a cultural touchstone across three generations and counting. “If we’re gonna be real, we’re gonna be real.”As a kid growing up in the late-1970s, Stan Smith’s were the shoe to have. Stylish, cool and, best of all, affordable, they’d quickly grown in popularity far beyond anything Adidas had envisioned in the early-70s, when they signed Smith, who along with his friend Arthur Ashe dominated professional tennis at the time, to a deal for a branded shoe.This was long before the era of Air Jordan’s, of course, when Adidas, Nike and Puma were duking it out for preeminence in the newly burgeoning athletic wear market. And while Nike and Puma had an undeniable cool factor on both the playing field and school playground, it was Stan Smith’s that would explode in popular culture.Read more at The Daily Beast.

AFP via Getty ImagesWhen The Daily Beast reported on the plans to make the Republican National Committee “white again” in March, the party was quick to deny that it was deprioritizing voters of color—even though the committee was scrapping plans to open new minority outreach centers.Since then, there’s been little word about what exactly Republicans have in mind when it comes to attracting voters of color, who have traditionally supported Democrats by wide margins. That’s especially true when it comes to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters, who make up a small but rapidly growing 6 percent of the electorate.But sources with knowledge of RNC efforts to win over these voters told The Daily Beast that Republicans aren’t abandoning outreach programs for AAPI voters. They’re actually doubling down—quietly.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Everett CollectionWelcome to modern rom-com week at The Daily Beast’s Obsessed! In honor of two big romance releases this week—The Fall Guy and The Idea of You—we’re celebrating everything we love about the last 15 years of romantic comedies.Jennifer Lopez has the work ethic of 100 people, 15 horses, three donkeys, and me after two cans of sugar-free Red Bull. That’s why she needs to dance with a cane: She’s a lot of woman to support! Hopping between an action movie about an assassin stricken with maternal guilt, to an album all about your marriage (complete with accompanying short film and documentary, lest we forget), to an upcoming sci-fi thriller about a dystopian universe where AI has taken over would be a daunting task for anyone. And yet, Lopez has persisted, making it look as easy as rocking up to the bodega counter and ordering her preferred meal of ham and cheese on a roll and a bag of chips.Lopez seems consumed by the need to prove to the world that she can do anything and be anybody. It’s a commendable effort, especially when something like her childhood bodega order can be lambasted online in Reddit threads questioning the veracity of her love of orange drink. For years, J.Lo has been the butt of the internet’s joke, a favorite to pile on whenever carpal tunnel-ridden thumbs need something new to post about. Various threads on X detail all of the “stolen” songs in her discography—a common misconception about the standard music industry practice of using vocals recorded in a demo as backing vocals in a finished song. Other times, a venture at audience connection will be an outright failure, like when her attempt to start the #LoveDontCostAThingChallenge was met with crickets, along with plenty of observations over how loudly those crickets were chirping.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesLaw Roach is no stranger to controversial looks. Whether the renowned celebrity stylist and image architect is showing up bulge-first to the 2023 CFDA awards or dressing his longtime client Zendaya in ostentatious tennis couture for her Challengers press tour, Roach is unafraid to take risks on the red carpet. That confident conviction extends to his larger body of work. Last year, Roach shocked the fashion and entertainment industries when he announced he would retire from styling to pursue his own ventures. And though he still works closely with Zendaya (and will occasionally pop up to style a friend and client like Celine Dion for her surprise appearance at this year’s Grammys), navigating uncharted waters has been tricky.“I’m figuring it out!” Roach tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed over Zoom, laughing to himself. “As far as my style and the way I want the world to see me, it’s changing a little bit. I think that’s okay.” Roach is promoting his latest gig outside the world of styling, a new E! Network reality show called OMG Fashun, which he’s hosting alongside megawatt multihyphenate Julia Fox. While this is far from Roach’s first foray into reality television, it’s certainly his most exciting. The series is a design competition that pushes for sustainability in the fashion industry through outlandish, upcycled looks that viewers could easily replicate and remix at home. (Think Project Runway for the Brooklyn club kid scene.) It’s the perfect addition to Roach’s portfolio, which already boasts a slew of outrageous and exciting styling decisions and branding tactics that have made him as famous as his A-List clients.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesActions taken in 2011 by senior executives of Rupert Murdoch’s London tabloids, following revelations about industrial-scale hacking in their newsrooms, have come back to bite them.New reporting in the British magazine Prospect, by Nick Davies, who first revealed the criminal activity in The Guardian, gives a detailed account of what he alleges was a giant cover-up, a sustained and rigorous operation to destroy evidence of wrongdoing.One of the executives at the center of that operation, according to Davies, was Will Lewis, who took over as CEO and publisher of The Washington Post this year.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesElon Musk is a major player on the global stage, striking business deals, getting high-profile photo ops, and making enemies out of world leaders along the way.Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla and owner of X (formerly Twitter), jetted off to China earlier this week to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in a bid to get self-driving cars approved in the country. The multi-billionaire went on a walk-and-talk with Qiang, and had a sit-down photo op that was reminiscent of the side-by-side chats that presidents of the United States enjoy with their counterparts.While the surprise visit could yield more praise and approvals for Tesla in China, the world’s largest auto market, not everyone was thrilled with the trip. Musk had previously been scheduled to visit India and announce a $3 billion investment in a car plant, but ended up canceling the trip in favor of going to China.Read more at The Daily Beast.