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.Instagram just isn’t what it used to be. With Gen Z users flocking to TikTok, social media as we know it is changing—and we’re leaving our friends and family behind.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
COVID science is moving backwards.
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.
You walk into your favorite coffee shop. You greet the familiar barista, who knows your daily order. You say “Hi, I’ll have the”—wait, I can’t figure out how to write the next word. You know, “the usual,” but shorter. Hip! Casual! I’ll have the … uzhe. I mean, the yoozh.
Even as the movie industry continues to recover from the pandemic’s debilitating effects, the ongoing story of film is not about loss of quality. This was a year filled with cinematic delights from every part of the world, with first-time filmmakers doing everything they could to shock audiences, and old masters delving into their darkest reminiscences for indelible works of memoir.
Online shopping has been on the rise for the past two decades, spiking abruptly (and unsurprisingly) during the pandemic. My household certainly did its part; for the past few years, we’ve filled our digital shopping cart, struggled to recall the credit-card number, and summoned groceries, kids’ clothing, and CDs (yes, I still buy them) to the porch.I was grateful for the delivery trucks, suddenly everywhere and idling. But by 2021, I’d had enough of scrolling.
In “Death by Policy,” the newly launched investigative unit of Pulitzer Prize-winning Futuro Media reveals how the U.S. Border Patrol’s policies push migrants attempting to cross from Mexico to the U.S. into dangerous areas, especially the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. The longstanding “prevention through deterrence” approach, which funnels people into unsafe migration routes, has contributed to thousands of deaths since the 1990s.
Senator Raphael Warnock makes history defeating Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia’s closely watched Senate runoff, becoming the first Black senator to be elected to a six-year term in Georgia. His victory in Tuesday’s special election will give Democrats control of 51 seats in the Senate. It also marks a major defeat for former President Donald Trump, who had handpicked Walker, a former football star who had no political experience, to be the standard-bearer in Georgia.
Many GOP lawmakers who sailed to victory in states with anti-abortion laws are planning to use their expanded power.
With new infections down, health officials will wind down emergency and let it expire by end of next month.
Health officials may allow the declaration to expire, even as they keep their mpox response in place.
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.
Public frustration with the restrictions appears to have finally swayed the opinion of officials.
Public frustration with the restrictions appears to have finally swayed the opinion of officials.
The incumbent defeated Donald Trump-backed Herschel Walker.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won a full six-year term by defeating Republican Herschel Walker in Tuesday’s runoff in Georgia, a victory that gives his party an outright 51-49 majority in the upper chamber.
While Democratic control of the Senate was assured once it became clear that Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto had secured a second term last month, the stakes were still high in Georgia.
The 2022 election cycle closes out in Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker square off in a runoff. Warnock led 49-48 in the first round on Nov. 8.
“Disappointed with the verdict in Manhattan, but will appeal,” the former president said Tuesday.
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy’s wild ride to the speakership promises only to get bumpier. He’s not backing down from having a floor fight, and his loudest detractor just announced his official challenge. That means there will be a contest for the top job on the floor come Jan. 3 unless McCarthy can pull some kind of maniac-appeasing miracle off in the next three weeks.
Rep.
On Tuesday, the Washington, D.C., police and other law enforcement connected to defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, received Congressional gold medals in a ceremony. This included the family of officer Brian Sicknick, who died as a result of the events of Jan. 6. At the ceremony were the top leaders of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Oh my…
NY Times mobile headline, “Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia escalate the war”
There’s … there’s so much wrong with this headline.
Stuart Varney, once a loyal defender of the former president, criticized Trump on multiple fronts.
The House Ethics Committee found the departing congressman financially benefited from a cryptocurrency that he was promoting and violated conflict of interest rules.
The city’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to explicitly ban the use of robots for deadly force.
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.Win or lose, all the criticisms of Herschel Walker obscure a larger point: The Republicans have acclimated the American public to ghastly behavior from elected officials and candidates for high office.
In 2012, Jeff Bezos claimed in a letter to Amazon shareholders that the company was serving humanity by eliminating old-fashioned “gatekeepers,” like book publishers, that stood between creators and their audiences. Today, nearly three decades since its founding, the company has indeed replaced these businesses with an even bigger and more centralized gatekeeper: Amazon itself.Think about the art and culture you consume—the books, music, movies, and podcasts.
In China, a dam seems on the verge of breaking. Following a wave of protests, the government has begun to relax some of its most stringent zero-COVID protocols, and regional authorities have trimmed back a slew of requirements for mass testing, quarantine, and isolation. The rollbacks are coming as a relief for the many Chinese residents who have been clamoring for change.
Commodity. Chattel. Contraband. Capital. What is a Black body in the South? What is a Black southern man, carted out to work a white-owned field?It’s impossible today to talk about Black men and white agendas without talking about Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for Senate in the runoff election in Georgia. But in order to talk about Walker, I’ve got to start in what may be his actual state of residence, Texas.