It’s Tuesday, May 5. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Suzy Weiss and Elliot Ackerman debrief the best and worst dressed at last night’s Met Gala. Mene Ukueberuwa on the political virtue-signaling that killed Spirit Airlines. Josh Code has the exclusive report on a new class-action lawsuit taking on three of America’s biggest marijuana companies. And much more.

But first: Madeleine Kearns meets the free speech warrior of the Trump administration.

Does it matter to America if Europe backslides into soft authoritarianism?

I’ve reported extensively for The Free Press on censorship in Europe; for example, how anti-abortion volunteers in Scotland have been arrested and convicted for silently praying outside abortion clinics. Stories like these have provoked an unusually aggressive stance from the Trump administration, which has fiercely criticized democratic allies whose free speech standards appear to be slipping.

On the front lines of that fight is Sarah Rogers. Her official title is under secretary of state for public diplomacy, but she’s been nicknamed “America’s free-speech czar” for her viral criticism of European censorship. Today, she exclusively shared the State Department’s new Public Diplomacy Strategic Plan with The Free Press, which identifies “digital freedom”—encompassing online free speech—as a strategic goal for the very first time.

I sat down with Rogers to find out what this all means—and why she thinks it’s so important that Americans care about speech crackdowns an ocean away.

And threats to free speech aren’t only occurring abroad. Last September, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. Months later, that same school canceled a planned commencement speech by best-selling author Sharon McMahon, after her posts condemning Kirk’s murder and criticizing some of his views provoked backlash and threats.

It’s an episode that captures some of the greatest tensions in the free speech debate, which is why we invited Sharon to share her story.

—Madeleine Kearns

Who Really Killed Spirit Airlines?

Mene Ukueberuwa

When it comes to the demise of Spirit Airlines, hindsight is 20/20. But policy wasn’t the only factor behind the budget airline’s collapse this weekend, writes Mene Ukueberuwa. Fuel costs and inflation may have squeezed Spirit’s razor-thin margins for years, but what really killed it was the Biden Justice Department’s 2024 decision to block its merger with JetBlue. This is what happens, Mene argues, when anti-corporate virtue-signaling replaces sensible antitrust regulation. Read full story

EXCLUSIVE: Cannabis Giants Sued for Marketing Weed as Medicine

Josh Code

Is Big Marijuana the new Big Tobacco? A landmark class-action lawsuit filed Monday in Illinois federal court is betting on it. The suit, reported on exclusively by Josh Code, could eventually include millions of plaintiffs across 12 states. It alleges that three of America’s largest cannabis companies marketed their products as medicine for anxiety, depression, and PTSD while knowing the science didn’t support those claims. The case gets at the core claim of the marijuana legalization movement: that cannabis is medicine, not merely a drug. Read full story

Arthur Brooks: Dating Apps Aren’t Broken. You’re Just Using Them Wrong.

Arthur Brooks

Dating apps aren’t going anywhere—so you may as well learn to use them well. Arthur Brooks breaks down new research on who’s actually swiping, and why those with “dark” traits like narcissism and dishonesty are overrepresented online (even though they’re not anywhere else). Read his piece to understand how to spot these people, avoid them, and ultimately use the apps to find your soulmate. Read full story

Terror for Terror’s Sake: From Dostoevsky’s ‘Demons’ to Today’s Political Violence

Gary Saul Morson

Few literary giants understood the psychology of young terrorists better than Fyodor Dostoevsky—a man who lived it himself as a member of Russia’s radical Petrashevsky Circle. Today, as highly educated suspected terrorists like Luigi Mangione and Cole Allen dominate the headlines, Dostoevsky scholar Gary Saul Morson writes about how the author understood something 150 years ago that we’re still struggling to grasp: what it means to live through “a period of fashionable terrorism”—and what we can do about it. Read full story

Met Gala 2026: Fashion Might Be Art, but It’s Not Always Pretty

Suzy Weiss and Elliot Ackerman

Where else can you find Kim Kardashian in a bronze breastplate and Madonna looking like a human circus tent? This year’s Met Gala, of course. Don’t miss Suzy Weiss and Elliot Ackerman on the fashionistas and fashion victims of last night’s event. Read full story

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