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.Last week, I asked readers, “Do you trust America’s institutions more than, less than, or as much as you did a decade ago? Why?”Replies have been edited for length and clarity.
The Jeep Wrangler was built to drive out past where the power lines end. Watch any ad for the car, and you’ll surely see it surmounting boulders and conquering muck in places far from the beaten freeway. Electric-vehicle chargers may be scarce in the wilderness, but even a military-derived four-by-four must keep with the times. To the delight of Earth-loving off-roaders, Jeep has announced that the first all-electric Wrangler is in the works.
Yesterday was not a good day for House Republicans or for their struggling leader, Speaker Kevin McCarthy. In the morning, McCarthy was forced to scrap a procedural vote on a GOP proposal to avert a government shutdown that will commence at the end of this month if Congress doesn’t act. In the afternoon, a handful of conservatives tanked McCarthy’s bid to advance legislation funding the Pentagon.
“The president wanted to make sure that no one can go without tests,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.
A Minnesota judge has dismissed criminal charges against three Indigenous water protectors who were arrested for protesting oil extraction on treaty-ceded Anishinaabe land. Winona LaDuke, Tania Aubid and Dawn Goodwin were arrested in January 2021 after police saw video shared on social media of the three women singing, dancing and praying near construction crews for Canadian energy company Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline.
A delegation of Australian lawmakers has arrived in Washington, D.C., to urge the Biden administration to halt its prosecution of WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange. More than 60 members of Australia’s Parliament from across the political spectrum have called for Assange’s release.
At the United Nations General Assembly this week, multiple world leaders voiced support for the imprisoned founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. We air an excerpt of Democracy Now!’s exclusive interview with Petro, who calls Assange’s continued incarceration “the greatest mockery of freedom of press … brought to bear by the country that built the concept.
We speak to Arjun Sethi, a Sikh community activist, civil rights lawyer and professor at Georgetown Law, about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s public accusations that the Indian government arranged the assassination of a prominent Sikh leader and Canadian citizen outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia in June. India has denied the allegations.
The administration says insurance companies are using loopholes to deny mental health care. Insurers say that’s not the case.
The CDC’s new director is traveling the country, meeting with state leaders and using social media to win back the public’s trust.
Pence argued that when it comes to abortion, he is the consistent conservative in the race.
A new POLITICO | Morning Consult poll reveals varying willingness to get the new shots.
Establishment Republicans rally to rescue global HIV-AIDS program.
The United Auto Workers announced a strike at three plants — one each at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — overnight.
A super PAC affiliate is spending $13 million far ahead of the normal advertising timeline.
The president leaned into his achievements at a Labor Day event in Philadelphia, but a new poll reflects widespread disapproval.
“It’s a complicated relationship,” she said of the U.S. and China.
The extremist Republican vows to tell her “side of the story” in the upcoming “MTG,” but critics aren’t having it.
Ty Cobb says new reports show Trump acting like a “mob boss” with instructions to violate the law.
Critics are blasting Erick Erickson for a classic false equivalency.
“I think all of you know I’m not a fan,” the Senate minority leader said.
Democrats in the Pennsylvania House will keep their one-vote majority after winning a Pittsburgh area seat in a special election.
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.The United Auto Workers strike has sparked fears of major economic turmoil, but the experts I spoke with think a recession is unlikely. Still, even if the economic effects of the strike aren’t felt nationwide, they are very real for workers, their families, and their communities.
Not long after the Writers Guild of America’s strike started in May, Eugene Ramos began trying to walk the picket lines at least twice a week every week. On such occasions, he dons his sunglasses and baseball cap—equipment for “war,” he calls it—to combat the Los Angeles sunshine, heads to a studio’s entrance, and scribbles his name on a sign-in sheet before joining the rally.
In the summer of 1999, when I was 16 years old, I remember walking to a train station in West London from a babysitting job when a 40-something man in a Range Rover pulled up, told me he was on television, and then announced to his young son (also in the car) that I was “Daddy’s new girlfriend.
Like most politicians, former President Donald Trump marked the occasion of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, by passing along holiday greetings to American Jews. Unlike most politicians, Trump used the opportunity to threaten them.On Sunday evening, just as Rosh Hashanah was coming to a close, Trump posted a meme on his social-media platform, Truth Social, excoriating “liberal Jews” who had “voted to destroy America.
As climate activists from around the world gather in New York for the annual Climate Week, which coincides with the new session of the United Nations General Assembly, an estimated 75,000 people marched on the U.N. headquarters Sunday with a demand for President Biden to “end fossil fuels.” They escalated their demands by targeting financing for fossil fuel projects, with a series of direct actions at major U.S. financial institutions and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Congress is almost certainly headed for another government shutdown due to Republican infighting that is preventing budget measures from being passed, says Ryan Grim, the D.C. bureau chief for The Intercept. The revolt is led by far-right members who oppose Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The Biden administration helped Pakistan get a controversial new bailout from the International Monetary Fund after Pakistan agreed to secretly sell arms to the United States for the war in Ukraine, according to a new blockbuster report by The Intercept.
As the Biden administration and Tehran carry out a prisoner swap that also includes the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue, we look at the state of U.S.-Iran relations with journalist Negar Mortazavi, host of The Iran Podcast. The deal represents a major diplomatic breakthrough between the two countries since the end of the Iran nuclear deal, from which the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew in 2018.