Poll workers serve an essential, if usually uncelebrated, role in American democracy. Organizing and tabulating is the basic business of elections. Or, it was until 2020.When then–President Trump refused to accept his loss and spread falsehoods about a stolen election, vote-counters were among the first people to face blowback. Poll workers endured combative protestors, threats, and harassment while completing their work.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Joe Biden asked Americans to remember that democracy is on the ballot next week. He seemed dispirited. I understand why.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
The doctors argue in the lawsuit the subpoenas are effectively a “fishing expedition” against abortion providers that violate Indiana law.
The update comes amid anxieties about the administration’s effort to promote the newest vaccination as an upgrade over the original.
This weekend, I’ll be waking up to one of my favorite days of the year: a government-sanctioned 25-hour Sunday. Forget birthdays, forget my anniversary; heck, forget the magic of Christmas. On Sunday, I’ll get to do a bit of time traveling as most of the United States transitions out of daylight saving time back into glorious, glorious standard time.I may be a standard-time stan, but I’m no monster. I feel for the die-hard fans of DST.
This story contains spoilers for the entire Star Wars franchise, including the Disney+ series Andor.In the eighth episode of the Star Wars prequel series Andor, the mysterious art dealer turned Rebel leader Luthen implores the extremist fighter Saw Gerrera to unite with other factions against the evil Galactic Empire.“Aren’t you tired of fighting with people who agree with you?” Luthen pleads with Gerrera. “There’s no chance any of us can make it real on our own.
The Ethiopian government and forces in Tigray have reached a truce to end two years of brutal civil war. The new peace deal follows a week of peace talks mediated by the African Union in South Africa. The Ethiopian government wants a unified country and Tigrayans want minoritarian rights upheld, says Adebayo Olukoshi, distinguished research professor at the Wits School of Governance who formerly worked on peace efforts in Tigray with the International IDEA.
We look at the impact of the war in Ukraine on the continent of Africa with Adebayo Olukoshi, an international relations scholar based in Johannesburg, South Africa. African nations import much of their grain. With their significant dependency on Ukrainian wheat and fertilizer in the Global South, “there is a wish for much more investment in diplomacy” between Ukraine and Russia, says Olukoshi.
As G7 leaders discuss supporting Ukrainian defense forces against Russia, we speak with Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, about the possibility of diplomacy to end the war. It is possible for the U.N. to help broker a peace deal, says Gowan.
Egyptian authorities have arrested hundreds in a crackdown on dissenting voices ahead of COP27, the U.N. climate conference which starts Sunday in Sharm El-Sheikh. Fifteen Nobel laureates have signed an open letter asking world leaders to pressure Egypt into releasing its many political prisoners, including human rights activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who plans to intensify his six-month hunger strike by forgoing water on the opening day of the climate summit.
Aid Access, a Netherlands nonprofit, is prescribing more abortion medication in the U.S. than ever, in defiance of state laws.
If the measure passes, language will be added to the state’s constitution guaranteeing the right to abortion as well as contraception and other reproductive health services.
The agency says it’s concerned the practice could endanger patients’ health.
Polls show voters care more about the economy than abortion. Democrats in the Rust Belt state argue the two can’t be separated.
The departure of Michelle McMurry-Heath comes just as the Biden administration is poised to begin implementing key drug pricing provisions and the balance of power could shift in Congress.
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
According to an NBC News poll released Sunday, 70 percent of registered voters expressed interest in the upcoming election as a “9” or “10” on a 10-point scale.
The city and state of New York have agreed to pay $36 million to settle lawsuits on behalf of two men wrongly convicted and imprisoned for decades for the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X. Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were exonerated last year for the murder after investigators found “serious miscarriages of justice” in the case. They each spent more than 20 years in prison for a crime they did not commit, and Islam died in 2009 before his record was cleared.
As Israel holds national elections amid increasing crackdowns on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, we speak with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who is in Jerusalem and has been speaking with Palestinian families in the Occupied Territories. He is calling on Israel to end its decades-long occupation.
On Wednesday evening at 7PM ET, President Joe Biden is set to deliver a speech on the continuing threat to American democracy. Excerpts from the speech have already been released, showing that Biden will warn against candidates for office who have already committed to thwarting the outcomes of democratic elections. Biden will reportedly make the speech from the DNC, not the White House.
Overnight, the news out of the area around Svatove was decidedly … weird. While Russian sources appeared in a near panic about new Ukrainian advances and seemed ready to write off the whole area, one of the most trusted Ukrainian sources was reporting an advance by Russian forces that caused Ukrainian troops to withdraw from two key towns. All of that might have been easier to sort out if the reports had not been for the exact same area.
Of all the people Academy Award-winning actor Julia Roberts might be connected to, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would not be one you’d expect. But it’s true: The famed civil rights leader and the Pretty Woman star shared a unique connection.
In a bizarre turn of events, on Oct. 28, Roberts’ birthday, a fan shared a video compilation that prompted a comment stating that Martin Luther King Jr.
As we approach the Nov. 8 midterm elections, races across the country seem to be heating up. Whether they’re truly heating up or the traditional media is making it sound like things are heating up is debatable. However, like most elections, the No. 1 thing either political party can do at this point is convince its registered members to vote. That’s the whole game, in a nutshell.
Traditional media is having a hell of a time this election in the “both sides” game, when one side (arguably their favorite) keeps insisting on doing things like cracking jokes and boosting heinous conspiracy theories about the assassination attempt on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, an attack that left her husband in the ICU with a head injury.
The loyal Trump ally has insisted that Donald Trump declassified the documents the FBI gathered from his Florida resort.
The president urged Americans to vote to defend democracy in next week’s midterm elections, decrying the recent attack on Paul Pelosi.
Stewart Rhodes allegedly tried to covertly pass along the message several days after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Skatepark Project’s fellowship program trains people in community organizing and project management so they can build skateparks in their neighborhoods.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.A new documentary, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, looks at a pivotal chapter of the civil-rights movement that shaped how we think and talk about race in America to this day. The film, inspired by the work of the Atlantic senior editor Vann R.
With inflation an increasing challenge, it’s more likely that the central bank will have to cause a recession to stop it, said Fed Chair Jerome Powell.