The Slatest for Nov. 3: Where It All Went Wrong for Sam Bankman-Fried

Wow, Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense really didn’t work! The former CEO of the crypto exchange FTX was found guilty on seven counts late Thursday—he could be sentenced to up to 110 years in prison.

Nitish Pahwa, who’s been covering the trial from the courtroom all month, reflects on what happened in the lead-up to the guilty verdict, and shares some takeaways about SBF’s incredible fall from grace.

Plus: Alex Kirshner tries to put his finger on why exactly SBF’s defense was so bad.

Since Oct. 7, Jewish settlers in the West Bank “have killed more than 120 Palestinians and injured at least 2,000. They have forcibly expelled more than 800 Palestinians from their homes, blown up their generators and solar panels, and burned down tents of Bedouin herders,” Fred Kaplan writes. He argues that Israel must loudly arrest the West Bank settlers killing Palestinians, or give up any moral authority in the conflict.

Plus, What Next asks: Can Hamas actually be destroyed?

Don Jr. and Eric Trump took the stand this week in their father’s New York civil fraud trial. (The two are also named as co-defendants.) Trump was none too happy about his children having to appear in court, and posted a Truth Social rant railing against the judge in the wee hours of the first day of his sons’ testimony. Molly Olmstead took a moment to reflect on this rare display of paternal angst from our former president.

For a recap of how their testimony went, keep an eye on Slate dot com—Shirin Ali is rounding up the week’s Trump trial developments in a digest every Saturday.

And stay tuned next week as well: Ivanka and the former president himself are expected to take the stand.

Nikki Haley has been giving Ron DeSantis a run for his money in Iowa. The Political Gabfest discusses whether she could … actually win?

At the beginning of the millennium, acclaimed male authors approached the page with swaggering authority. It’s a different world now. Laura Miller takes an incisive look at the legacy of the early-2000s Franzenian “social novel” boom, and homes in on the problem of the white-guy novel today.

Two major new movies—Priscilla and May December—attempt to take on age-gap romances without either romanticizing or moralizing. Dana Stevens takes a closer look at what exactly they’re trying to say.

Whoa, what is that?! Slate has a new shop, and it has everything you need to set the table, set the mood, or (finally) send those Save the Dates?

Take a browse through our collection of thoughtfully curated, responsibly made products from small businesses—every purchase supports small businesses and Slate’s independent journalism.

All right, all right—you’ve got us! Apparently that wasn’t us, it was … Julia Fox?!

We hope you have a weekend every bit as incandescent as Fox paints herself to be. Thanks so much for reading, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!