Rebecca Solnit

Summer, once associated with pleasure, travel and shared freedom, has increasingly become a season of extreme heat, wildfire, smoke, flooding and fear. Drawing on fires and heat deaths across Europe and North America, as well as personal experiences in the American Southwest, Rebecca Solnit argues that climate change has transformed familiar landscapes into war zones and deprived people of both safety and everyday joy. She presents climate action as a peace movement aimed at ending this assault on nature, while noting that the losses include not only homes, ecosystems and lives but also freedom, pleasure and a stable future.

The United States is portrayed as a profoundly contradictory nation containing oppression and resistance, environmental destruction and conservation, violence and traditions of nonviolent activism. Solnit argues that Trump has badly damaged the country but cannot wholly define it, emphasizing the diversity of its people, landscapes and democratic movements. She highlights immigrant-rights activists, Zohran Mamdani, Bad Bunny, Alysa Liu and the nationwide No Kings protests as evidence of a more inclusive and hopeful American future. The country’s post-Trump renewal, she concludes, must involve accountability for wrongdoing and a major effort to repair the conditions that enabled the damage, guided by the unfinished democratic ideals associated with Abraham Lincoln.

Reported investigations by the New Yorker and New York Times indicate that Andrew and Tristan Tate’s circles overlapped with Trump’s at Mar-a-Lago and that the Trump administration may have helped ease the brothers’ legal and travel difficulties in Romania. Andrew Tate reportedly claimed he had assurances from the Trump administration, while the White House denied involvement and the brothers’ lawyers rejected the allegations. The commentary compares Tate’s alleged exploitation and promotion of misogyny with Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, arguing that the deeper concern is not only the men’s conduct but the willingness of Trump’s family and associates to associate with or protect figures accused of dehumanizing women.

Rebecca Solnit argues that the Trump administration is systematically dismantling and corrupting the US government while weakening public health, social services, environmental protection, scientific research, democratic institutions and international alliances. She links spending on war, militarization and wealthy interests to cuts affecting vulnerable Americans and public lands, and criticizes erratic tariffs and foreign policy for damaging the global economy. Solnit contends that Trump’s motives matter less than the consequences and calls for a post-Trump reconstruction that addresses deeper democratic flaws—including voter suppression, gerrymandering, an unaccountable Supreme Court and the political power of billionaires—rather than simply restoring the previous status quo.

Rebecca Solnit argues that societies overstate the role of individual heroes and obscure the collective movements that produce social change. She highlights Minneapolis residents’ nonviolent resistance to ICE and support for immigrant neighbors, California’s replacement of Cesar Chavez Day with Farmworkers Day after revelations about Chavez’s sexual abuse, and the democratic practices of the Zapatistas. Solnit portrays Chavez as a catalyst within a broader United Farm Workers movement rather than its sole hero, criticizes macho and militarized notions of heroism, and calls for recognition of ordinary farmworkers and communities whose collective action protects democracy and advances social change.

Feminism is not dead, Rebecca Solnit argues; judging it by whether patriarchy, sexual violence or discrimination have been completely eliminated sets an impossible standard. She highlights #MeToo's cultural and legislative effects, including expanded workplace protections and greater willingness to hear victims, while noting that the movement's most important successes may be crimes and abuses that never occur. The article places setbacks such as the overturning of Roe v Wade alongside global reproductive-rights gains and decades of progress for women and LGBTQ+ people. Although inequality, manosphere misogyny and political backlash remain serious threats, changes in law, public attitudes, family roles and accountability demonstrate that sustained feminist activism has transformed society and remains necessary.

Rebecca Solnit argues that decades of feminist activism, institutional change and public education created the conditions for victims of sexual abuse to be believed and for powerful men such as Jeffrey Epstein and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to face scrutiny. She traces a chain from earlier feminist campaigns and the #MeToo movement to investigative reporting that exposed Harvey Weinstein and Epstein, while warning that the Trump administration and its allies are working to preserve secrecy, impunity and gender inequality.

Rebecca Solnit examines how Silicon Valley technologies, including artificial intelligence, chatbots and Google Glass, may displace human connection and push the natural world into the background. The episode argues that reclaiming more connected and meaningful lives will require collective effort.

Technology companies have promoted convenience, efficiency and productivity at the expense of difficult, embodied and socially meaningful activities. The essay argues that outsourcing decisions, creative work, intimacy and emotional support to AI weakens critical thinking, resilience, public life and democratic connection, while AI companions can intensify loneliness and delusion. Reclaiming human agency requires collective efforts to rebuild communities, public spaces and relationships, alongside renewed attention to nature, physical presence, effort and the immeasurable value of ordinary human experience.

Rebecca Solnit argues that opposition to the Trump administration represents a fundamental struggle over inclusion, truth, compassion, democracy and the protection of climate and public-health systems, rather than an ordinary policy dispute. She condemns the administration’s alleged lies, attacks on immigrants, hostility toward science and law, and dismantling of USAID, while highlighting grassroots resistance by immigrant-rights advocates, lawyers, judges, journalists, scientists and educators. Solidarity with immigrants, refugees and Jeffrey Epstein’s victims is presented as evidence that the opposition has become more organized and principled. Solnit says the administration has faced protests, political defections, declining popularity and repeated setbacks, but warns that it is becoming more extreme and reckless. She concludes that the United States’ future remains uncertain but can still be shaped by people who continue to participate and act on principle.

The Paris Agreement transformed climate policy by establishing the 1.5-degree target, elevating the influence of vulnerable countries and prompting stronger national legislation. A 2025 International Court of Justice advisory opinion gave the treaty greater legal force by affirming that states must address climate harm and regulate polluting businesses. The article credits Pacific island students, Vanuatu and climate advocates with driving these developments, and highlights falling renewable-energy costs, expanding solar and battery storage, and signs of stagnating or declining fossil-fuel use. Although global action remains far from sufficient and projected warming is still around 2.5 degrees, the agreement has bent the trajectory away from a projected 4 degrees, leaving significant opportunities for further climate action.