In the news today: Herschel Walker’s campaign for the Senate continues to flounder, and that his own campaign staff doesn’t believe he’s up to the job won’t help. It turns out that two of Donald Trump’s most prominent supposed “enemies” both were targeted with super-rare, supposedly random IRS audits, and the chances that Trump allies did not intentionally target them both appear to be low.
Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary today. How about that? President Carter is one of the most well-liked politicians in modern history, not because of his sabotaged tenure in office, but because he has spent his life being an example of excellence in public service.
James Caan, one of America’s great film actors, has passed away at the age of 82. His family used his popular Twitter account to announce the sad passing: “It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6.The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.
While the Supreme Court in June 2020 ruled against the previous administration’s attempt to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, it didn’t mark the end of GOP-led litigation against the popular and successful policy. Nearly a year ago, a notoriously anti-immigrant judge ruled against the program following a lawsuit from corrupt Texas attorney general Ken Paxton.
It’s always heartening to see environmental activists celebrate a win in the long battle against the depredations of developers, corporate interests, and governmental cronyism. July 4 in Puerto Rico was one of those days. These activists had a celebration that had nothing to do with American independence (after all, Puerto Rico is still a colony).
“Just another crappy day,” state Sen. Jay Hottinger said in response to the scatological protest.
“Nothing epitomizes market failures more than the cost of insulin,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
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.Boris Johnson, like so many other populist charlatans, is a symbol of how much has changed in modern politics—for the worse.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
The most pathetic men in America
The great veterinary shortage
Take away the president’s immunity.
The head of government is caught in a series of scandals. The scandals are not necessarily so important in themselves. Many of them involve purely personal misconduct. But if exposed, they would shock public opinion and threaten the leader’s hold on power. So he lies and lies and lies again. He mobilizes his cabinet and staff to lie for him. And when the truth does finally catch up with him, he tries to brazen things out. The people voted for him. He has a mandate.
You develop certain psychological reflexes to get you through the initial shock of the first push alert: Some number dead, others wounded in a mass shooting someplace in America. At this point we all know that the earliest reports are typically flawed, so you can suspend belief a degree or two, just for the time being. It’s summer; school’s out, which means they—the murdered, whoever they were—likely weren’t children, which means you can exhale a little, uneasily.
Minions! You know them, even if you don’t want to. The banana-yellow, denim-clad, booger-shaped thingamabobs are so popular that they’ve overtaken the film franchise in which they originated. They’ve had their images stitched onto every piece of merchandise possible—sanctioned or not—and probably make up the bulk of those memes your one relative won’t stop posting on Facebook.
We host a conversation about “Left Internationalism in the Heart of Empire,” which is the focus of an essay by Cornell University law professor Aziz Rana in Dissent magazine. Rana argues for the creation of a “transnational infrastructure of left forces across the world” and says movements of the left need “clear alternatives to the hardest questions” of foreign policy crises, such as the Russian war in Ukraine.
Protests over fuel shortages are unfolding around the world — in Sri Lanka, Ghana, Peru, Ecuador and elsewhere — over high gas prices. We look at the impact of rising fuel costs on countries in the Global South with Antoine Halff, former chief oil analyst at the International Energy Agency, now at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.
Fuel shortages in Sri Lanka have triggered a wave of protests calling for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This comes as Sri Lanka’s government has forced the closure of all schools and announced plans to cut electricity by up to three hours a day, as well as stop printing currency to quell inflation. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka is also facing a dire shortage of food and medicine, and doctors say the country’s entire health system could collapse.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party on Thursday following a wave of departures from his government, including senior Cabinet members. The party will choose a new leader and the country’s next prime minister in the coming days. In the past week, 59 members of Parliament have resigned from the government, and on Wednesday night, a group of Cabinet members went to 10 Downing Street to urge Johnson to step down.
Among the new developments on abortion access: a possible filibuster carveout, more state legal battles and an announcement from Google.
FDA eyes the media-savvy adviser to improve agency’s PR efforts after recent stumbles.
The ACT-Accelerator has struggled to secure funding as Covid cases have declined from the height of the pandemic.
Fears have mounted that the central bank might trigger a recession sometime in the next year with its aggressive rate action.
Things are so dire that central bank policymakers might hike rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, a move not taken in almost 30 years.
America’s rampant inflation is imposing severe pressures on families, forcing them to pay much more for food, gas and rent.
Uvalde, Texas, school district police chief Pete Arredondo has resigned from his new position on Uvalde’s City Council after facing widespread criticism over his handling of the May 24 school massacre when an 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 fourth graders and two teachers. State authorities say Arredondo was the incident commander who ordered officers to wait in the school’s hallway for over an hour instead of confronting the gunman.
The Georgia Republican spoke just days after seven people were killed in a mass shooting at a parade in Illinois.
Former Education Secretary Bill Bennett said exorcists can help potential mass shooters with “deeply spiritual problems.
“It just defies logic to think that there wasn’t some other factor involved,” Andrew McCabe said.
In the news today: Another Trump aide who was witness to events inside the White House leading up to the Jan. 6 coup attempt has agreed to give public testimony to the House select committee investigating the coup; Trump’s former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, resigned her post immediately after the Trump-incited violence. Sen.
July Fourth is a holiday filled with cookouts, alcohol, BBQs, family, friends, and fireworks. Lots of fireworks. But fireworks are by nature explosives and parties get out of hand and explosives are … explosive. Every year, more and more Americans are injured or killed in firework-related mishaps. That number has increased over the years as more and cheaper fireworks become available to the public.
The United States had more mass shootings over the holiday weekend—11, to be exact—making us the Joey Chestnut of mayhem, in that no one can even hope to challenge us. Republicans insist the reason we have so many more gun killings than any other country can’t possibly be the guns—because too many Fox News viewers enjoy doing white-knuckle drive-by hits on mule deer from their Rascal scooters.
The redoubtable, indefatigable, and gnarly rad Russian media monitor Julia Davis is back with another dispatch from the land of make-believe—otherwise known as Russian state TV. It’s a transcendently weird place where Vladimir Putin is doggedly de-Nazifying his Jewish-led neighbor and NATO somehow has reason to fear a Russian attack—even though Russia hasn’t been able to defeat its much-smaller non-NATO neighbor in four-plus months.
A day following the mass shooting during a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, disgraced Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly went on an asinine and (even for him) deeply racist rant on his No Spin News and Analysis podcast in response to a recent press conference by Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker.
“There are no words for the kind of evil that turns a community celebration into a tragedy,” Pritzker said.