Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf 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 your favorite cuisine? Be an unabashed partisan and make a case for why it’s the best in the world.Send your responses to conor@theatlantic.com.
Kelly Reichardt’s newest film, Showing Up, is in some ways a remembrance of art schools past. It’s set in Oregon, like most of her projects, specifically in and around a college where the taciturn yet flinty Lizzy (played by Michelle Williams) works a day job while pursuing a career as a sculptor. Reichardt filmed on the old campus of the Oregon College of Art and Craft, which closed in 2019.
When I was a teenager in the early 2000s, my parents both died. Like many American children, I had been steeped in stories about orphans for years, but the books I had read and movies I had watched (Jane Eyre, Annie) failed to mirror my experience of parental loss. They also contributed to my mistaken understanding of orphanhood and the makeup of our child-welfare system—misconceptions that many Americans hold today.
Advocates have long demanded data privacy improvements as doctors and patients fear prosecution post-Roe.
We look more at what recently leaked Pentagon documents reveal about the war in Ukraine, and U.S. spying on both its adversaries and its allies, including Israel. In Part 2 of our interview with James Bamford, the longtime investigative journalist discusses how the leaks challenge the corporate media’s portrayal of the war in Ukraine, and more. Bamford’s latest book is Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America’s Counterintelligence.
Protesters in the Philippines have been speaking out against the growing U.S. military presence in the country as nearly 18,000 troops from both countries take part in a massive military drill in the South China Sea. This comes as tension is escalating between the United States and China over espionage, economic competition and the war in Ukraine. The Philippines, a former U.S.
Burma’s military junta carried out its deadliest attack yet on civilians in rebel-held areas when it bombed a meeting of community leaders Tuesday in the Sagaing region, killing an estimated 100 people, including 30 children. The military junta has increasingly used airstrikes to crush the resistance since it seized power in 2021, often targeting schools and clinics run by the opposition.
The ramifications from Friday’s decision for the FDA and the drug industry could be felt for decades.
Victim advocates were caught off guard by the news.
“What you saw by that one judge in that one court in that one state — that’s not America,” Xavier Becerra said.
The Biden administration swiftly appeals abortion pill ruling as Dems split on going further.
Jerome Powell “stepped up and took a flamethrower to the regulations,” the senator said.
The government said prices increased 0.4% last month, just below January’s 0.5% rise.
“I can’t think of a time when there’s been greater uncertainty,” the president said.
We look at how racial disparities in healthcare treatment and access will shape the impact of anti-abortion rulings with Dr. DeShawn Taylor, an OB-GYN physician, abortion provider and owner of Desert Star Family Planning in Phoenix — the only Black-owned independent abortion provider in the border state of Arizona. Her upcoming book is Undue Burden: A Black Woman Physician on Being Christian and Pro-Abortion in the Reproductive Justice Movement.
There is also a “sir” in this story.
The Texas senator cast banks as the gold standard for security due to their use of armed guards.
Rep. Richard Holtorf said the bill isn’t needed because Spain won’t let “running of the bulls” participants in Pamplona sue if they get injured.
North Dakota’s Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has signed two transgender athlete bans into law.
Last Tuesday’s Wisconsin election might have been overshadowed by the news of Donald Trump’s arraignment, but Trump and his party were likely paying close attention to the race—and the dangers it portends for the GOP in 2024.First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Cover story: American madness
The real hero of Ted Lasso
Please don’t ask me to play your board game.
GOP senators voted for the Trump-appointed judge knowing he was rabidly anti-abortion. But none would tell HuffPost if they’re happy about his court order.
This winter, storm after storm after storm dumped rain and snow on California, and now, as the spring poppies bloom, the state is lush. Hillsides once prickly with dry vegetation have softened. Ski resorts, once thawed out and closed by late spring, are buried under record snow and planning to stay open into July. Satellite photos show a state transformed from brown to green, streaked from top to bottom with bright-emerald patches.
If you’ve ever purchased a pair of faux-leather sandals without realizing they were faux, the sandals probably cleared up that misunderstanding for you pretty quickly. Both real and fake leather can shred your feet on first meeting, but the real stuff will eventually stretch, bend, soften, and mold itself to your needs. Faux leather, meanwhile, is more likely to remind you why it has long had the derogatory moniker of pleather. It’s plastic, which doesn’t really break in.
People with already high risk for HIV could lose access to free PrEP and testing.
Ted Lasso, like an athlete meeting the moment, peaked at the right time. The show premiered during the waning months of Donald Trump’s presidency; against that backdrop, its positivity felt like catharsis, its soft morals a rebuke. Soon, Ted Lasso was winning fans and Emmys. Articles were heralding it as an answer to our ills. The accolades recognized the brilliance of a show that weaves Dickensian plots with postmodern wit. But they were also concessions. Kindness should not be radical.
The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into a recent leak of highly classified Pentagon intelligence documents revealing secrets about the war in Ukraine, as well as details about the U.S. spying on a number of its adversaries, as well as its allies, including Israel and South Korea.
Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott says he is “working as swiftly” as possible to pardon a U.S. Army sergeant who was just convicted Friday of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020 just blocks from the Texas state Capitol. Daniel Perry was also convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for fatally shooting 28-year-old Air Force veteran Garrett Foster.
Democratic Representative Justin Jones has returned to the Tennessee state House, just days after Republicans voted to expel him. The Metropolitan Council of Nashville voted 36 to 0 on Monday to reinstate him. Following the vote, Jones’s supporters marched to the Tennessee Legislature, where he was sworn in on the steps of the Capitol.
While her wife was pregnant with their son, Aimee MacDonald took an unusual step of preparing her own body for the baby’s arrival. First she began taking hormones, and then for six weeks straight, she pumped her breasts day and night every two to three hours. This process tricked her body into a pregnant and then postpartum state so she could make breast milk.
Victim advocates were caught off guard by the news.