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IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked some of the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Matt Morrow- or ‘Vegas Matt’ – is a different kind of gambler. He loses thousands of dollars every day on camera. But he has millions of followers online who watch him obsessively, bankrolling his betting. Perfectly harmless… right?
(Slate, approx 24 mins reading time)
Vegas Matt was on the cusp of a remarkable achievement. In a matter of weeks, his YouTube channel would cross the million-subscriber mark—a metric that pairs nicely with the million or so people who follow his Instagram account, and the 685,000 on his TikTok. New videos appear daily, and they all follow the same format: First, Vegas Matt counts out a hefty wager in front of a blackjack table or a slot machine. Then, like so many gamblers, he simply tries his luck. The camera is framed to provide the illusion that the viewer is in the captain’s chair, preparing to immolate $3,000 on the altar of chance. Throughout all this, Vegas Matt displays no elite strategy, acumen, or gamesmanship. He does not claim to have an insider’s edge or an esoteric jackpot-juicing technique. No one watching his videos is going to pick up tips to improve their approach. But that’s the magic: He’s utterly relatable. One of the enduring axioms of the gambling world is that despite anyone’s best efforts, the house always wins. So, in the language of casinos, to be relatable is to eat shit, constantly, and nevertheless crawl back for more. For amateur gamblers like me, these videos are the closest we can get to the intoxicating precarity of a big bet without risking a dent to the checking account.
Cochlear implants helps deaf children to hear, but many still struggle with spoken language. Cathleen O’Grady writes about how focusing purely on speech puts their language development at risk, and why still teaching them sign language is essential.
(Science, approx 16 mins reading time)
It was at speech therapy that Cason’s mother, Amanda Cooper, was advised not to use sign language with her son if she wanted him to learn to speak. The therapist “did not want me using it at all, in therapy or at home,” Cooper says. But Cason struggled. His therapist would cover her mouth to encourage Cason to process speech without visual cues—an intensive method recommended by implant manufacturers and many specialists. “When you did that, he would break down,” Cooper says, recalling the sessions. “He would cry.” Although the exact reason for Cason’s struggle is hard to know, his rare form of deafness, which disrupts how sound travels to the brain, may have distorted the sound from the implant; he may have also struggled because he received implants relatively late. After a year of this, Cooper decided to stop Cason’s speech therapy. Despite the therapist’s warning not to sign, Cooper had started researching sign language and using very basic American Sign Language (ASL) at home to supplement Cason’s communication; now, she made signing her focus. “That changed everything for him,” Cooper says.
The story of how a journalist was inadvertently added into a group chat where senior Trump administration officials were discussing upcoming strikes against Yemen dominated the headlines this week. Here’s the article that kicked it off.
(The Atlantic, approx 16 mins reading time)
At 11:44 a.m., the account labeled “Pete Hegseth” posted in Signal a “TEAM UPDATE.” I will not quote from this update, or from certain other subsequent texts. The information contained in them, if they had been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility. What I will say, in order to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing. The only person to reply to the update from Hegseth was the person identified as the vice president. “I will say a prayer for victory,” Vance wrote. (Two other users subsequently added prayer emoji.)
An influx of “ultra-high-net-worth individuals” to the Florida town has brought demand for experienced household staff who are both loyal and discrete. Emily Witt meets some of them and finds out what they do, and how much they earn.
(The New Yorker, approx 20 mins reading time)
“Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Boca, and Miami—it’s where the big players are,” Capric said. She wore a summery halter dress, and was on a day off from a job she’d had for a year and a half, working as one of two nannies for an affluent family who relocated to Palm Beach in the aftermath of 2020. (Like every household staff member I spoke with, she had signed a nondisclosure agreement, so could not share specific details about her employers.) At the time we met, she was earning a hundred and forty-five thousand dollars a year. She was also getting a housing stipend that covered half her rent, and could expect a year-end bonus. All in all, she told me, her compensation package added up to at least a hundred and sixty thousand dollars a year. She has, at times, outearned her husband, who has a master’s in engineering.
Ahead of the release of the second season of The Last of Us, here is a profile of its 21-year-old star where they discuss what to expect.
(British Vogue, approx 16 mins reading time)
“Bella is a soul partner at work and in life,” their co-lead Pedro Pascal confirms. Thrown together by tragedy, over the course of the first season his character, Joel, went from a hired gun shepherding Ellie to a lab that promises it can extract her fungi-resistant DNA to becoming her stand-in father figure. This season, however, will test that relationship to its extremes. “[They’re] the most empathetic actor I’ve worked with,” he tells me. “You have to be careful to not forget, at least then, that they are navigating an early chapter of work and of life, because you instantly feel under their care and understanding.” Over the course of the job the pair became BFFs, proving a viral sensation on the first season’s press tour – a kind of two-person Generation Game, with Pascal crowned the internet’s daddy and Ramsey a younger, cheekier upstart. Today, Pascal is saved in Ramsey’s phone as Pedge (“I hate calling him Pedro. It feels so formal”).
On 19 November 1969, the Brazil legend converted a penalty kick for his Santos team in Rio to score the 1,000th goal of his career. Or did he?
(The Guardian, approx 6 mins reading time)
Somehow, the records had failed to register a goal scored by Pelé in Brazil’s 4-1 win over Paraguay in a South American military cup competition in 1959. The recalibration that followed meant his 1,000th goal was scored in the game against Botafogo da Paraiba and not the one wildly celebrated in Rio at the Maracanã. It was hardly a shock the records appeared unreliable. After all they had been derived not only from myriad internationals, but from a confusion of local, state and national games, as well as scores of obscure friendlies played across the globe. In those days Santos would play anyone – seemingly anywhere – for a big bag of cash and decent expenses, so keeping accurate records was not an exact science.
Sarah Stillman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into felony murder, a draconian legal doctrine that has put thousands of Americans – disproportionately young and Black – in prison.
(The New Yorker, approx 43 mins reading time)
As a result of the crash, which all parties agreed was unintentional, two men stood accused of murdering his father and a friend who was cycling with him. One of those charged, twenty-five-year-old Sadik Baxter, had never laid eyes on the victims. At the moment of impact, he had been miles away, in handcuffs. When Donna heard the charges, she asked, How is this even possible? Ian had learned the answer in law school: a sweeping and uniquely American legal doctrine, often couched in terms of justice for victims’ families, called felony murder. To engage in certain unlawful activities, the theory goes, is to assume full responsibility if a death occurs—regardless of intent.
Note: The Journal generally selects stories that are not paywalled, but some might not be accessible if you have exceeded your free article limit on the site in question.
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