# Has Sally Rooney Been Censored? Plus. . . Canonical: https://brew.new/templates/substack/has-sally-rooney-been-censored-plus Brand: substack.com Category: newsletter ![Preview of Has Sally Rooney Been Censored? Plus. . .](https://cdn.brew.new/email-preview-3036ee70bd2f86d4-tracking_r57v7zbvreva3y2g55bzrjmxkx8gbxb3-1792063320840.png) ## Email content Forwarded this email? Subscribe for more The Front PageThursday, 10.15.2026View in App Upgrade to Listen Get the whole story. Join now.Has Sally Rooney Been Censored? Plus. . . Anthony Scaramucci’s advice for Trump’s new press secretary. Why modern dating is rigged against ordinary men. The shocking scale of the debanking scandal. And more. Sally Rooney speaks onstage during the Hulu Panel at Winter TCA 2020 on January 17, 2020, in Pasadena, California. (Erik Voake via Getty Images for Hulu) By The Free Press It’s Thursday, October 15. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Why are so many men without college degrees single? Anthony Scaramucci on whether Katie Zacharia will last. Rupa Subramanya on the new debanking revelations. And much more. But first: Is Sally Rooney being censored? Yesterday, best-selling Irish novelist Sally Rooney announced that her publisher is pulling her books from British stores. Within hours, critics moved to denounce the decision as an egregious example of censorship. “Writers should not find their books disappearing from shelves because of their political beliefs,” warned the head of Amnesty International UK. But are Rooney’s beliefs really the problem? Not quite, writes Eli Lake. Last year, when Britain designated the anti-Israel group Palestine Action a terrorist organization, Rooney responded by pledging to give the group a share of her royalties. Funding a banned group is a crime under British law, so her publisher decided it couldn’t keep selling her books without risking prosecution. The question, then, Eli argues, is “not whether Rooney has been censored (she hasn’t).” It is whether Britain was right to designate Palestine Action a terrorist organization in the first place. Read Eli’s column on why those who seek to turn Rooney into a free speech martyr are missing the point—and what’s really at stake in this case. —The Editors Sally Rooney Is No Free Speech HeroEli Lake • Free Speech Sally Rooney Is No Free Speech Hero Read story › Rupa Subramanya • Tech and Business How Debanking Took Hold Inside the Biggest Banks How Debanking Took Hold Inside the Biggest Banks Only two years ago, the idea that Americans were being “debanked”—cut off from financial institutions over their politics—was dismissed as a conspiracy theory. Yesterday, federal regulators confirmed it was real all along. After reviewing 50,000 internal bank documents, they found that nine of America’s largest banks had policies that may have led them to shut out customers over their political or religious views. Rupa Subramanya investigated debanking in 2024, back when banks refused to explain themselves. “Now, for the first time,” she writes, “we know what some of America’s biggest banks were saying behind closed doors." Read story › Daniel Cox • Culture and Ideas How Modern Dating Left Ordinary Men Behind How Modern Dating Left Ordinary Men Behind Single Free Press readers may be familiar with the sorry state of modern dating. Young people everywhere are struggling to find love—but not everyone is struggling equally. “There is only one group that has far worse dating outcomes than almost everyone else,” writes Daniel Cox. “Young, single men without college degrees.” Cox explored this growing divide in his new book, Generation Uncoupled, and today, in a piece adapted from the book, he explains why the modern dating landscape has left ordinary men behind—and what, if anything, can be done to close the gap. Read story › Noah Bernstein • U.S. Politics How Long Will Katie Zacharia Last as Press Secretary? We Asked Anthony Scaramucci. How Long Will Katie Zacharia Last as Press Secretary? We Asked Anthony Scaramucci. On Friday, President Trump named Katie Zacharia as his new press secretary—but her first briefing on Monday drew instant ridicule. Visibly nervous, she repeatedly stumbled over her words, leading critics to wonder how long she’ll survive the job. One person not joining the chorus of criticism: Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted just 11 days as Trump’s communications director in 2017. He tells Noah Bernstein what advice he has for Zacharia, and why her biggest problem may be that she’s too honest for the job: “You have to be a mendacity machine-gun to work for Donald Trump." Read story › MORE FROM THE FREE PRESSAllie Beth Stuckey and Deja Foxx: Do We Need Feminism? The Free Press Watch now How Will Israelis—and History—Judge Benjamin Netanyahu? The Editors Read story Trump’s Disastrous Diesel Deal Aaron MacLean Read story No, Your Kid Probably Doesn’t Need Extra Time on Tests Katie Davis Read story THE NEWS Rescuers carry a person injured in a Russian missile strike on a nine-story residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on October 14, 2026. (Danylo Antoniuk/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images) The U.S. may have deliberately held back warnings of a Russian missile barrage on Ukraine this week, after American officials blamed “bad weather” for a detection failure. The strikes killed six people and knocked out power for about 600,000 people, though President Trump insists the U.S. is still sharing intelligence with Kyiv. Pope Leo XIV is walking around his hospital room and eating normally as he recovers from lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said yesterday. The 71-year-old was diagnosed after doctors removed the lower lobe of his right lung Tuesday, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be well enough for his South America trip next month. Taiwan said Wednesday it plans to purchase 6 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas each year once a proposed Alaska pipeline project begins operating, and could invest up to $4.4 billion in the project—a deal President Trump called one of the biggest ever at a rally in Alaska. Deliveries would begin in 2032 at the earliest. With midterm elections less than three weeks away, President Trump hit the campaign trail yesterday, rallying voters in Arizona behind Rep. Andy Biggs’ run for governor in Arizona before flying to Montana to boost a GOP House candidate. “I’m not running, but I feel that I’m running,” he told reporters, saying he’s worried a Democratic Congress would dismantle what his administration has built. Annual inflation climbed to 3.7 percent in September from 3.4 percent in August, driven largely by a 9 percent monthly jump in gas prices tied to the Iran war, the Labor Department said yesterday. It’s the final major inflation reading before the midterms. South Carolina authorities on Wednesday charged Rep. Nancy Mace’s former fiancé, Patrick Bryant, and two business associates in connection with a 2018 sexual assault that Mace described on the House floor last year. Investigators allege one man assaulted and incapacitated a woman while Bryant and the other associate watched. Bryant has denied the allegations. For the first time in more than 25 years, Americans can buy sunscreen made with a newly approved ingredient: bemotrizinol. Long common in Europe, it blocks both types of UV rays that can damage the skin and it doesn’t leave a white cast. After more than a month on the loose in Yellowstone National Park, Luna the Jack Russell terrier is finally headed home. The 10-year-old dog escaped her family’s cabin in September and evaded rescuers, until a volunteer caught her yesterday using a trap baited with her owners’ old clothes. COMMENT LIKE SHARE DOWNLOAD AS A PDF Become a paid subscriber To support our journalism, and unlock all of our investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is, subscribe below. 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