Morning Meeting Air Mail

It’s summer and it’s travel season, and if you live on the East Coast of the United States, your travel will likely intersect with I-95, the great interstate that runs from Miami to Maine. Everybody knows it. Everybody hates it. And Rich Cohen explains why. Then Dana Brown will join us from New York to tell us about something that, unlike I-95, will soothe your mind and your stomach—a terrific restaurant that aspires to be, wonderfully, nothing more than that. And finally, Rebecca John joins us from London with her sobering report on how Big Oil companies give millions to cultural institutions from Masterpiece on PBS to the British Museum in order to launder their reputations.

This week, Elena Clavarino takes us inside her story about a culture of alleged sexual harassment and alleged financial impropriety at the art world’s most prestigious design gallery. Then it’s election season … not just in the U.K. and the U.S. but also in the European Union, where the European Parliament is holding elections. For years, the parliament was the domain of faceless bureaucrats. No more, however. As our own George Pendle reports, it’s now become a finishing school for Fascists. And finally, Linda Wells will join us for a serious—yes, serious—talk about Paris Hilton. Linda will tell us why we’ve all been wrong in our national pastime of the past 20 years—underestimating Hilton and her business savvy.

Ashley Baker has thoughts on summer travel. Then, for more than a century, being selected as a Rhodes scholar, and given the opportunity to study at Oxford University, was seen as a great validation of one’s strength as a student and a future leader. But, as James Kirchick reports this week, it seems that is no longer the case. Then it’s summertime, which means cocktails on the beach and rosé all day. But Linda Wells tells us what happened when she tried a THC cocktail. And finally, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of D-day, Tim Bouverie reports from London on what he considers the greatest film about the Normandy invasion, The Longest Day.

We have a frightening article this week courtesy of Clara Molot, a Senior Editor here at Air Mail. Many people are not aware that across the U.S. and around the world rates of cancer in young people are rising with no clear explanation. And Clara looks at a mysterious cancer surge among a group of twentysomething alumni from a college in Virginia. It’s a heartbreaking story. And speaking of heartbreak: it’s been 25 years since John F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, died when the plane he was piloting crashed into dark, fog-shrouded waters off of Martha’s Vineyard. We all knew J.F.K. Jr., but for many Bessette-Kennedy remains a mystery. A new book, Once upon a Time, looks at her life, and the author Elizabeth Beller will join us. Finally, you have surely heard that driverless cars are coming for us. Devin Friedman joins us from Los Angeles to tell what he discovered when he took one for a spin. (Or did the car take him for a spin? We’ll find out.)

The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing in the South of France, and one of the big stories everyone is following concerns Francis Ford Coppola. Forty-five years after he won the Palme d’Or for Apocalypse Now, he is back with his latest film, Megalopolis. He has spent more than $100 million of his own money on the film and is at the festival looking for a distributor. Our own Sam Wasson will tell us how one of the titans of moviemaking found himself hat in hand. Then Stuart Heritage will join us from the U.K., where he will tell us about what is known to be the worst hotel in Great Britain. And James Eli Shiffer has the incredible story of an American woman from Minnesota who discovered that she is the secret daughter of an Italian banker and senator who cavorted with Jackie Kennedy and Princess Margaret and was the face of the 1970s jet set.

Is your partner cheating on you with an A.I. companion? As Flora Gill tells us this week, many people, in search of physical and emotional intimacy, are increasingly turning to what are known as “A.I.-companion sites.” Then Alyssa Choiniere takes us inside the protests at Columbia University and tells us where this all might be headed. And finally, John Arlidge joins us from London with a new look at an extraordinary scandal. Ten years ago, high-profile members of the British Establishment—including a former prime minister—were falsely accused of sexually abusing children. In the effort to discover the truth, however, the country tore itself apart.