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. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Question of the WeekWhat is the best response to anti-Semitism in America?Send your responses to conor@theatlantic.com or simply reply to this email.
Earlier this fall, while riding the subway, I overheard two friends doing some reconnaissance ahead of a party. They were young and cool—intimidatingly so, dressed in the requisite New York all black, with a dash of Y2K revival—and trying to figure out how to find a mutual acquaintance online.“Does she have Instagram?” one asked, before adding with a laugh: “Does anybody?”“I don’t even have it on my phone anymore,” the other confessed.
The Treasury Department complied with a request for the former president’s tax returns after a three-year legal battle.
Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board has voted to extend a contract with LUMA Energy — the private U.S.-Canadian corporation that took over the island’s power grid and is widely denounced by residents on the island for its inconsistent service and high prices. The privatization of Puerto Rico’s power grid, supported by an unelected board appointed by the U.S.
The largest higher education strike in U.S. history has entered its third week in an effort to secure livable wages, more child care benefits, expanded family leave and other demands. Some 48,000 academic workers at all 10 University of California campuses are on strike, including teaching assistants, postdoctoral scholars, graduate student researchers, tutors and fellows.
President Biden is pushing Congress to block a pending nationwide rail strike and push through a contract deal that includes no sick days and is opposed by four of the 12 rail unions. Biden’s latest request is an attempt to “legislate us basically back to work, before we’ve even had a chance to strike,” says locomotive engineer and Railroad Workers United organizer Ron Kaminkow.
The latest round of Medicaid expansion negotiations comes as states prepare for the eventual end of the Covid-19 public health emergency, and as nearly a third of rural hospitals are at risk of closure.
He also criticized China’s Covid-19 response as “shutdowns without a seeming purpose.
“I think we’re going to see a lot more people getting vaccinated in the upcoming weeks. This is why we’re launching the campaign we are right now,” said Ashish Jha, the coordinator of the White House’s Covid-19 response.
The Georgia Supreme Court Wednesday reinstated the state’s ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion opponents plan to use environmental laws to curb access to pills used to terminate an early pregnancy.
Move comes amid White House pressure on the global health organization to move quickly to reduce stigma around the virus’ name.
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
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.
As climate Sahrawi activists in occupied Western Sahara accuse Morocco of greenwashing, the Spanish Film Academy, the Spanish equivalent to the Oscars, has just given its social justice award to the Western Sahara International Film Festival and its film school. We feature our interview at the U.N.
The Wyoming senator faced a backlash from social conservatives over her vote for legislation codifying protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.
“I had no idea what his views were, and they weren’t expressed at the table,” the former president said.
Apple CEO Tim Apple—that’s what Donald Trump calls him, and Donald Failing Real Estate Company is always right—does pretty well for himself. The chief executive formerly known as Tim Cook made almost $99 million last year, and he’s the top decision-maker at the most valuable company on the planet.
A gay man helped craft and disseminate the “horrendous demonization against his own community,” Michelangelo Signorile reported.
The Republican National Committee announced this week it plans to set up a team of advisers to review the party’s midterm performance following the anticipated “red wave” that never materialized. According to Politico, the team of advisors would help guide the party’s strategy.
This is actually a good idea. Any party should examine its performance following an election, whether they win or lose.
Far-right agitator Milo Yiannopoulos said he planned the meeting “to show Trump the kind of talent that he’s missing out on.
On Monday, following delay after delay, the MAGA-controlled Cochise County, Arizona, board of elections missed its deadline to certify 47,000-plus (mostly conservative) votes. The move was seen by most as pure political theater from a deep-red county which has swallowed the Big Lie election denialism hook, line, and sinker. Like all political theater, this will cost taxpayers money.
Depending on the news source you’ve followed on a very big and disturbing new case out of Riverside, California, it might be unclear to you whether or not Austin Edwards—the 28-year-old cop who allegedly catfished a teenager before killing her family—was an active officer of the law at the time of the crime.
Twelve Republicans joined Democrats in passing historic legislation to protect LGBTQ couples from Supreme Court conservatives going rogue again.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Nov 30, 2022 · 2:37:50 AM +00:00
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Brandi Buchman
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn was in the courtroom when the verdicts were announced. It was an emotional and long-awaited moment.
Justice, he told Daily Kos, should be expected not celebrated but nonetheless, he regarded today as a win for the American people.
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.Never Trump is—still—a movement that is about more than just one man. It stands in opposition to everything Donald Trump has done to American civic life, and rejects those who would wear his mantle.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
Although it may be difficult to imagine a universe in which George Clooney needs a little help charming women, that’s the case in Up in the Air, the 2009 movie in which he plays a frequent-flying HR consultant in charge of executing mass layoffs.
The world’s largest volcano is erupting for the first time since 1984. Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, a giant mound of a volcano that looks so much like Mars that researchers actually hold Mars simulations there, has stirred. Authorities say the eruption does not threaten any local communities; no evacuation orders have been issued.For scientists, it’s an exciting development.