A lot of the commentary in the past week regarding the leaked Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade has understandably focused on the sheer malevolence of its attack on women’s and others’ rights to make reproductive decisions free of government intrusion. Some have focused on the political ramifications, which may turn out to be profound.
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said that the state will fight to remain a “beacon of hope” for abortion-seekers as the rest of the region restricts access.
The Atlantic staff writer Jennifer Senior has won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. She was awarded journalism’s top honor for her remarkable September 2021 cover story, “What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind,” which looked at one family’s heartbreaking loss in the 9/11 attacks and their struggle to move on. This is The Atlantic’s second Pulitzer Prize, following Ed Yong’s 2021 Pulitzer for his reporting on the coronavirus pandemic.
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.In the last Up for Debate I asked readers, “What are your views on abortion?”Joey shares a personal story:
I am a 78-year-old grandmother.
Airpower should have been one of Russia’s greatest advantages over Ukraine. With almost 4,000 combat aircraft and extensive experience bombing targets in Syria, Georgia, and Chechnya, Russia’s air force was expected to play a vital role in the invasion, allowing the Russian army to plunge deep into Ukraine, seize Kyiv, and destroy the Ukrainian military. But more than two months into the war, Vladimir Putin’s air force is still fighting for control of the skies.
Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google | Pocket CastsIn this series, Atlantic staff writer Olga Khazan analyzes what it takes to change our relationships, our work, and our perspective—with a practical approach to one of life’s greatest mysteries: how to start over.Change can be really hard. Inertia is powerful, mortgages and marriages are long-term, and personality traits can feel pretty hardwired. But we’re in an era characterized by change.
In a historic victory, the Irish nationalist Sinn Féin party has won the most seats in Northern Ireland’s parliament for the first time ever. Sinn Féin is the former political wing of the IRA — the Irish Republican Army — and favors reunification with the Republic of Ireland.
After the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion that may overturn Roe v. Wade, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida introduced a bill Friday to prohibit employers from deducting expenses related to their employees’ travel costs when seeking gender-affirming care for their children out of state, as well as for those seeking an abortion.
Alabama has become the first U.S. state to make it a felony to provide gender-affirming medical care to trans youth. A law went into effect Sunday that bans the use of puberty blockers and hormones, which can be lifesaving for trans children and teens. Doctors and others who are found in violation of the law could face up to 10 years in prison. The Alabama law is the latest in a series of escalating conservative attacks on LGBTQ people in the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended his invasion of Ukraine, saying it was a necessary blow against NATO. His remarks came during Russia’s annual Victory Day celebrations on May 9 marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, are increasingly describing the fighting in Ukraine as a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia.
With the heightened possibility that abortion rights could, in a matter of weeks, be an issue left to the states, attorney general candidates across the country are reminding voters of the stakes.
Ahead of the summit, some officials worry the Biden administration’s effort is hobbled by a lack of additional pandemic response funding.
The nation’s top medical adviser expressed private frustration that elite D.C. no longer seems to take the Covid threat seriously.
The case numbers in the U.S. and globally are still relatively low, but their severity has clinicians worried.
The penalties vary widely by state, and also can include hefty fines or the suspension of a medical license.
The single-shot Covid-19 vaccine will now only be available for adults who cannot or will not receive an mRNA vaccine.
Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue.
The government said gross domestic product shrank at a 1.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter.
The steady spending suggested the economy could keep expanding this year even though the Federal Reserve plans to raise rates aggressively to fight the inflation surge.
The war in Ukraine will “severely” set back the global recovery from Covid-19, according to the IMF.
The Fed’s campaign to raise interest rates — designed to reduce spending and curb inflation — will slow growth, which will have consequences for American workers.
As the Supreme Court is poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, we speak with law professor Michele Goodwin, who has written extensively about how the criminalization of abortion polices motherhood. She discusses how on the eve of the court’s oral arguments in the Dobbs case in November, she wrote about how an abortion saved her life. She describes how the U.S.
Governments around the world are eagerly returning back to pre-pandemic conditions by relaxing preventative restrictions, lifting mask mandates and pulling back public funding. Dr. Abraar Karan, infectious disease fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine, says these moves are overly optimistic and that the U.S. is not prepared for new variants spreading around the country. “We’re trying to say it’s over. It’s not true,” he says.
The World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic has now caused an excess of 15 million deaths globally. We look at how staggering death counts reveal broader political failures to protect public health and close the international vaccine gap.
We speak to Yale University historian Timothy Snyder about his latest article for The New Yorker, “The War in Ukraine Is a Colonial War.” Snyder writes about the colonial history that laid the foundations for the Russian war in Ukraine, such as Russia’s imperial vision and how leaders including Hitler and Stalin have aimed to conquer Ukrainian soil on different premises. “The whole history of colonialism … involves denying that another people is real.
The former Pentagon chief said he had to prevent “things that could have taken the country in a dark direction.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces bogged down in Ukraine, apparently unable to defeat one of the poorest nations in Europe, and China locking up millions of people in a seemingly never-ending battle to contain COVID-19, the once-ubiquitous idea of inevitable Western decline has suddenly been called into question. Out of nowhere, the free world once again stands for something, and is even showing signs of shaking itself out of its decades-long torpor.
When I first wrote about the town of Popasna on April 16, I had absolutely no idea that this was an important military stronghold for Ukraine, or that it would become the focus of Russian attention for the following month. I stumbled across the town in a list of locations, looked it up where everyone looks things up—Wikipedia—and realized it had an interesting history.
“You’re dealing in examples that are rare,” said Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.
