Jonathan Mahler
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Author, THE GODS OF NEW YORK. (And, previously, The Bronx Is Burning and The Challenge.) Staff Writer, New York Times Magazine.
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Articles by Jonathan Mahler
He Gave Millions to Jeffrey Epstein. What Did He Get in Return?
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. He Gave Millions to Jeffrey Epstein. What Did He Get in Return? In “Money to Burn,” William D. Cohan charts the rise and fall of the Wall Street billionaire Leon Black.
Five Takeaways From the Times Investigation Into Larry Ellison’s A.I. Gamble
Oracle 1 hour ago Larry Ellison Bet It All on the A.I. Boom. Will He Be the Face of the A.I. Bubble? The New York Times - Jonathan Mahler, Jim Rutenberg, Kirsten Grind • 1h On Jan. 21, 2025 — the first full day of the second Trump administration — Larry Ellison woke up in his 33-bedroom, 34-bathroom oceanfront mansion in Florida, got into his Gulfstream jet and headed up to Washington.
Larry Ellison Bet It All on the A.I. Boom. Will He Be the Face of the A.I. Bubble?
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. On Jan. 21, 2025 — the first full day of the second Trump administration — Larry Ellison woke up in his 33-bedroom, 34-bathroom oceanfront mansion in Florida, got into his Gulfstream jet and headed up to Washington. Ellison, who was 80 and worth in the neighborhood of $200 billion, had an appointment at the White House.
Five Takeaways From the Times Investigation Into Larry Ellison’s A.I. Gamble
Last September, Larry Ellison briefly became the richest person in the world, after steering Oracle, the data and software storage company he founded, into the new world of A.I. But Ellison’s big bet on A.I. was built on an astronomical amount of debt — with implications far beyond the company.
Israel, AIPAC and Difficult Questions for Democrats
July 29, 2026, 6:00 a.m. ET The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group known as AIPAC, has spent a record amount of money in this year’s midterm elections to either oust or support candidates based on their support of Israel. Jonathan Mahler, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, discusses the new litmus test for the left at a time when the United States’ relationship with Israel is under scrutiny.
الديمقراطيون يديرون ظهورهم لإسرائيل
ترجمة وتحرير: نون بوست عندما أطلق براد لاندر حملته للانتخابات التمهيدية للحزب الديمقراطي عن الدائرة العاشرة للكونغرس في نيويورك أواخر العام الماضي، قطع وعدًا كان يُعد في السابق بمثابة انتحار سياسي، حيث تعهد بأنه لن “ينفذ إملاءات “أيباك” في واشنطن. والآن، مع اقتراب موعد الانتخابات التمهيدية المقررة في 23 يونيو/ حزيران، أصبحت قضية “أيباك” محوراً متكرراً طوال الحملة الانتخابية.
AIPAC Wants Democrats to Back Israel. Instead, They’re Turning on AIPAC.
AIPAC Wants Democrats to Back Israel. Instead, They’re Turning on AIPAC. Once the guardian of the bipartisan pro-Israel consensus, it is now a polarizing force in the party. Credit...Photo illustration by Chantal Jahchan Jonathan Mahler writes frequently about politics and is a former editor at The Forward, a Jewish publication.
The Apartments at the Center of Mamdani’s Affordable Housing Crisis
On a chilly afternoon in January, the newly elected mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, stood at a portable lectern in the lobby of a large apartment building in Jackson Heights, Queens. He had come to announce that the city had settled a lawsuit against A&E Real Estate, the owner of the building, for violations at 14 of its properties. But really he had come to send a message, both to the city’s landlords and to the constituency that had just swept him into office: New York City’s tenants.
How a Stray Quote of Jesse Jackson's Led to a Rupture Between Black and Jewish Voters
In national political lore, the word -- "Hymietown" -- still resonates, recalling an infamous incident that ruptured a powerful alliance between Black people and Jews dating back to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. kAm%96 #6G] y6DD6 y24<D@? yC] H2D :? E96 >:5DE @7 9:D `hgc AC6D:56?E:2= 42>A2:8? H96? 96 925 H92E 96 E9@F89E H2D 2? @77\E96\C64@C5 4@?G6CD2E:@? H:E9 2 C6A@CE6C 7@C E96 (2D9:?8E@? !@DE[ |:=E@? r@=6>2?] ~?
How a Stray Quote of Jesse Jackson’s Led to a Rupture Between Black and Jewish Voters Original
In national political lore, the word — “Hymietown” — still resonates, recalling an infamous incident that ruptured a powerful alliance between Black people and Jews dating back to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. was in the midst of his 1984 presidential campaign when he had what he thought was an off-the-record conversation with a reporter for the Washington Post, Milton Coleman.
هل مستقبل حركة "لنجعل أمريكا عظيمة مجدداً" معادٍ لإسرائيل؟
ترجمة وتحرير: نون بوست عندما ينظر المؤرخون إلى ولاية الرئيس ترامب الثانية، قد يرونها باعتبارها ذروة دعم الحزب الجمهوري المستمر لإسرائيل. وقد يرونها أيضًا اللحظة التي بدأ فيها انهيار التحالف الذي يقوم عليه هذا الدعم – بين المسيحيين الإنجيليين والمؤسسة الجمهورية في السياسة الخارجية.
Is the Future of MAGA and the Republican Party Anti-Israel?
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. When historians look back on President Trump’s second term, they may see it as the pinnacle of the Republican Party’s enduring support for Israel. They may also see it as the moment when the partnership undergirding this support — between evangelical Christians and the Republican foreign-policy establishment — began to unravel.
Talking to the Survivors of Hiroshima Changed Robert Jay Lifton Forever
The Lives They Lived Robert Jay Lifton in 1992. From the Lifton family b. 1926 Robert Jay Lifton He peered into the darkest corners of humanity and remained an optimist. By Jonathan Mahler When Robert Jay Lifton visited Hiroshima for the first time in the spring of 1962, he spent five fevered days interviewing the leaders of various survivor groups, religious figures, university professors and many others.
WATCH: Zohran, Trump, and a new New York?
We just talked live with Jonathan Mahler, New York Times staff writer and author of the new book The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990. We talked about the Epstein emails and the world of the neoliberal power elite, and how that world had its beginnings in the New York City of the 1980s — the moment when private power took over, and, among other things, gave us Donald Trump.
POZ Awards 2025 / Best in Literature
Welcome to the 10th Annual POZ Awards, spotlighting the best representatives of HIV and AIDS in media and culture. The POZ editorial staff selects the nominees, but POZ readers choose the winners. Eligible nominees were active or were presented, published or produced between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025. Voting ends on December 1, which is World AIDS Day.
On the cusp of dramatic advances in cancer treatments, Trump sharply curtails publicly-funded research
GLP Policy & Performance Review, 2024 The GLP is committed to full transparency. Download the report. Global Gene Editing Regulation Tracker Our interactive GLP global map explains the status of each country’s regulations for human and agricultural gene editing and gene drives. GLP 2021 Annual Report The GLP is committed to full transparency. Download our 2021 Annual Report. Jonathan Mahler | New York Times | September 22, 2025 XLinkedInFacebookRedditBlueskyThreads Cancer cell.
How the Trump Administration Is Dismantling America’s Cancer-Research System Original
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. The cancer-research system, which has helped save millions of lives, is under threat in one of its most productive moments. A desk in a cancer-research lab at UMass Chan.
How Trump Is Shutting Down the Cancer Research System Original
Rachael Sirianni first learned her lab might be in trouble just a few weeks into the new year. A professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, in Worcester, Sirianni focuses primarily on an aggressive form of pediatric brain cancer known as medulloblastoma. Researchers have made great strides in treating these tumors, but they are still often fatal, and even successful treatments can come with devastating side effects.
Murdochs Reach Deal to Resolve Succession Fight
The Murdoch family's epic, decades-long succession battle has reached a multibillion-dollar finale. Lachlan Murdoch has completed an agreement to secure control of his family's media empire for decades to come, the family announced Monday. The deal ensures that the empire's various outlets, including Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, will remain conservative after his father Rupert's death.
Murdochs reach deal to resolve succession fight
Lachlan Murdoch has completed an agreement to secure control of his family’s sprawling media empire for decades to come, the family announced Monday. The deal ensures that the empire’s various outlets, including Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, will remain conservative after his father Rupert’s death. It is valued at $3.3 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations.
Herdeiros do bilionário Rupert Murdoch chegam a acordo para resolver disputa por sucessão
A épica batalha pela sucessão da família Murdoch, que durou décadas, chegou a um final multimilionário. Lachlan Murdoch concluiu um acordo para garantir o controle do vasto império midiático de sua família nas próximas décadas, anunciou a família nesta segunda-feira, 8. O acordo garante que os diversos veículos do império, incluindo a Fox News, o New York Post e o Wall Street Journal, permanecerão conservadores após a morte de seu pai, Rupert.
Murdochs Reach Deal to Resolve Succession Fight Original
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Lachlan Murdoch will take control of a new family trust in a deal worth $3.3 billion, ensuring that his father’s media empire will retain its conservative slant. Listen to this article · 8:40 min Learn more Lachlan Murdoch, left, and Rupert Murdoch, center, arriving at court in Reno, Nevada last year.
Inside the deal ending the Murdoch succession fight - Editor and Publisher
Posted Monday, September 8, 2025 8:06 pm The Murdoch family’s epic, decades-long succession battle has reached a multibillion-dollar finale. Lachlan Murdoch has completed an agreement to secure control of his family’s sprawling media empire for decades to come, the family announced on Monday. The deal ensures that the empire’s various outlets, including Fox News, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, will remain conservative after his father Rupert’s death.
The Gods of New York: The Tumultuous Eighties, from Donald Trump to the Tompkins Square Riots
Why is New York City so endlessly compelling? Its residents – an army of the brash, unpretentious and hilariously unapologetic – certainly know how to make a drama out of a crisis. Many New Yorkers seem to think the world revolves around them (to be fair, sometimes this is true). In the 1980s, New York was plunged into a series of social crises that would be mirrored across the United States in the decades that followed.
Opinion | The Mamdani Moment Is About More Than You Realize
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. The Mamdani Moment Is About More Than You Realize Aug. 11, 2025, 5:02 a.m. ET Credit...Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press Mr. Mahler is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the author of the forthcoming book “The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990,” from which this essay is adapted.
8 Early Rap Songs From a New York City in Turmoil
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Image Run-DMCCredit...Getty Images/Getty Images Dear listeners, This is Jonathan Mahler. I’m a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and I have a new nonfiction book coming out next week called “The Gods of New York.” It’s about four convulsive and transformative years in the life of the city: 1986 to 1990.
Jonathan Mahler on the Election That Ushered in Modern NYC
Editors’ note: This essay was adapted from The Gods of New York: Egoists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990, by Jonathan Mahler, which will be published on August 12 by Random House. A scandal-plagued incumbent. An Italian American from a working-class outer borough. A progressive front-runner looking to make history — and whom the real-estate community is determined to stop. I am talking, of course, about New York’s 1989 mayoral race.
WATCH: Who are cities for?
We just spoke live with New York Times Magazinestaff writer Jonathan Mahler — author of the forthcoming book The Gods of New York as well as the classic Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning — about Zohran Mamdani and how political change happens in New York City.
The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders
Sarah Aziza. Catapult, $29 (400p) ISBN 978-1-64622-243-8 Palestinian-American journalist and Fulbright fellow Aziza delivers a visceral debut autobiography that braids mental illness, queer identity, and generational trauma into a striking meditation on exile.
Strong Roots: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Ukraine
Chef and cookbook author Hercules (Home Food) blends personal history with political urgency in this poignant account of her family’s roots in Ukraine. What begins as a visceral tale of survival and cultural preservation—Hercules recounts the emotional turmoil of persuading her parents, uncle, and aunt to flee Kakhovka in southeastern Ukraine and reunite in northern Italy after Russia invaded in 2022—soon becomes a meditation on the century that Hercules’s ancestors have spent in the region.
Zerrüttete Monarchie: Im Murdoch-Clan tobt der Erbstreit um sein Medienimperium
Zerrüttete Monarchie Im Murdoch-Clan tobt der Erbstreit um sein Medienimperium Von „Fox News“, über das „Wall Street Journal“ bis zur „Sunday Times“: Er baute das wichtigste Medienimperium der Welt auf. Doch für sein Vermächtnis zerstörte Rupert Murdoch seine Familie. Es war Anfang Dezember 2023, als sich der legendäre New Yorker Verleger Rupert Murdoch auf den Weg nach London machte, um seine beiden ältesten Töchter, Prudence (Prue) und Elisabeth (Liz), zu besuchen.
Augustine the African
Catherine Conybeare. Liveright, $31.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-63149-852-7 In this rich and elegant biography, classicist Conybeare (The Irrational Augustine) re-centers the African cultural heritage of St. Augustine.
Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland
A Way with Words radio host Barnette (A Garden of Words) combines philology, etymology, and memoir in this entertaining chronicle of her lifelong love of language. The daughter of educators—including a mother who strictly championed proper grammar—Barnette broadened her linguistic horizons during college, thanks to the mentorship of a retired classics professor and polyglot who taught her all of Oedipus Tyrannus in the original Greek and opened her mind to the subtleties of translation.
A Truce That Is Not Peace
Miriam Toews. Bloomsbury, $26.99 (192p) ISBN 978-1-63973-474-0 Novelist Toews (Fight Night) delivers a haunting meditation on writing and death in her first work of nonfiction. When Toews was invited to a literary conference in Mexico City, organizers asked her to submit an answer to the question “Why do you write?” Personal anecdotes, literary quotes, and biographical snippets about authors who died by suicide tumbled onto the page in response.
How the G.O.P. Fell in Love With Putin's Russia Original
What explains the Trump administration's radical reversal toward Moscow? Credit... Photo illustration by Pablo Delcan In 1989, shortly before the fall of communism, Boris Yeltsin - the reformer who would soon become the first freely elected president of post-Soviet Russia - visited a supermarket in Houston, Texas, and was overwhelmed by the dizzying array of meats and vegetables on offer. "What have we done to our poor people?" he later asked an associate traveling with him.
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Las 6 conclusiones sobre la lucha por la sucesiĆ³n de Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch y sus familiares controlan el imperio mediático conservador más influyente del mundo. Pero, durante más de un año, han estado enzarzados en una batalla legal secreta sobre quién lo controla. Rupert y su hijo mayor, Lachlan, intentaron cederle a Lachlan el control total de las empresas. Sin embargo, sus hermanos bloquearon la maniobra. A continuación, ofrecemos seis conclusiones de esos documentos.
Six takeaways about the Murdoch succession fight - Editor and Publisher
Posted Friday, February 14, 2025 10:40 am Rupert Murdoch and his family control the most influential conservative media empire in the world. For more than a year, they’ve been locked in a secret legal battle over who controls it. Rupert and his oldest son, Lachlan, tried to hand Lachlan full control of the companies. His siblings blocked the move.
6 Takeaways About the Fight for Rupert Murdoch's Empire Original
The fight over the Murdoch family trust has deepened old fault lines. Lachlan was convinced that his three oldest siblings, led by James, were plotting to overthrow him when their father dies. Elisabeth, who has historically seen herself as the family's Switzerland, said that she felt "violated and forsaken" by her father's plan to change the trust. "You've blown a hole in the family," she told him.
Inside the Murdochs' Succession Drama Original
In early December 2023, Rupert Murdoch flew into London to see his two oldest daughters, Prudence and Elisabeth. It was not a social visit. For months, Rupert and his firstborn son, Lachlan, had been working on a secret plan to amend the family's trust to strip three of his other children - Prue, Liz and James - of their power to influence the direction of the family business. Their lawyers had named it Project Family Harmony.
‘You’ve Blown a Hole in the Family’: Inside the Murdochs’ Succession Drama
4 hours ago The New York Times obtained nearly the entire record of the secret trial over the fate of Rupert Murdoch’s family trust, which controls his powerful media empire. The reporters, Jim Rutenberg and Jonathan Mahler, described the trial as like “an entire season of ‘Succession.’”
Rupert Murdoch's Appeal to Alter Family Trust Faces Uphill Battle Original
"These types of decisions are not that easy to challenge because of this 'clearly erroneous' standard," said Kevin P. Walsh, a Nevada estate planning and litigation lawyer who appears regularly in the Reno probate court. "It would have to be something that really slaps you in the face as being a mistake." That might prove especially difficult, he said, because of the breadth and unequivocal language of the Dec. 7 recommendation that the probate commissioner, Edmund J.
Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family Trust
A Nevada commissioner ruled resoundingly against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust to consolidate his eldest son Lachlan’s control of his media empire and lock in Fox News’ right-wing editorial slant, according to a sealed court document obtained by The New York Times. The commissioner, Edmund J. Gorman Jr., concluded in a decision filed Dec.
Nevada commissioner rules against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust
A lawyer for Murdoch, Adam Streisand, said Murdoch and Lachlan were disappointed with the ruling and intended to appeal Jonathan Mahler, Jim Rutenberg New York Published 11.12.24, 11:19 AM Representational image File picture A Nevada commissioner ruled resoundingly against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust to consolidate his eldest son Lachlan’s control of his media empire and lock in Fox News’s right-wing editorial slant, according to a sealed court document obtained by...
Rupert Murdoch fails in bid to change family trust
A Nevada commissioner ruled resoundingly against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust to consolidate his eldest son Lachlan’s control of his media empire and lock in Fox News’ right-wing editorial slant, according to a sealed court document obtained by The New York Times. The commissioner, Edmund J.
Rupert Murdoch fails in bid to change family trust - Editor and Publisher
Posted Tuesday, December 10, 2024 7:14 am A Nevada commissioner ruled resoundingly against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust to consolidate his eldest son Lachlan’s control of his media empire and lock in Fox News’s right-wing editorial slant, according to a sealed court document obtained by The New York Times. The commissioner, Edmund J.
Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family Trust
If Mr. Murdoch and Lachlan do not succeed in court, they could pursue other means to consolidate Lachlan's power. One way would be for Lachlan to buy out his siblings' stake in the company. After The Times reported on the legal battle over the family trust in July, the paper, joined by several other news outlets, filed a motion to unseal the proceedings, citing the significant public interest in its outcome. That case is ongoing.
Over the course of the 2024 presidential campaign, Elon Musk went from dark-money donor to high-profile surrogate to unofficial chief of staff. He camped out at Mar-a-Lago after the election with the Trump family and hopped on Donald Trump's call with Ukraine's president. He's even played diplomat, meeting secretly in New York with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations.
How Tech Billionaires Became the GOP’s New Donor Class
Elon Musk and a group of Silicon Valley allies have built a shadow campaign to put Donald Trump back in office. Last February, the billionaire financier Nelson Peltz summoned a group of about 20 wealthy, predominantly Republican donors and a handful of G.O.P. strategists to dinner at his $334 million waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Fla. There were plenty of people in the room who had publicly disavowed former President Donald Trump after the Jan.
Rupert Murdoch, la batalla y sucesión secreta por Fox News- Grupo Milenio
Rupert Murdoch está de lleno en una batalla legal secreta contra tres de sus hijos por el futuro del imperio familiar de los medios –Fox News y otros–, en su intento por garantizar que siga siendo una fuerza política conservadora tras su muerte, según un documento judicial cerrado que obtuvo The New York Times.
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