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Activists and organizers like to say that the world is run by those who show up, so the fact that what Texas’s Democratic legislators need to do to further their agenda is not show up is inauspicious for them.
Donald Trump has almost certainly complained more about journalists than any of his predecessors have, maybe more than all of them combined. So when Trump deemed a query “the nastiest question” he’s ever gotten from a member of the press, it was notable.
The moment came in May, when CNBC’s Megan Cassella asked Trump about “TACO,” an acronym for “Trump always chickens out.
“Is it Goldstein again?” Richard Nixon demanded.
In July of 1971, the president was infuriated that an unnamed official at the Bureau of Labor Statistics had seemed to downplay the administration’s progress on reducing unemployment while briefing reporters. His suspicions fell on Harold Goldstein, the longtime civil servant and BLS official in charge of the jobs numbers, who had attracted his ire for other comments earlier in the year.
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“A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness,” wrote Robert Heinlein in his 1982 futuristic novel, Friday. “A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.
Negotiations are underway in Geneva on a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty that has been in the works for several years, as the crisis of pollution from plastics worldwide has grown more acute. An estimated 8 billion metric tons of plastic waste now pollute the planet. Without changes, the production of plastic is expected to triple by 2060 — much of it driven by single-use plastics.
Israel’s security cabinet is considering plans to expand Israel’s assault on Gaza toward a full military takeover, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pushing for a monthslong offensive on Gaza City and central Gaza refugee camps. The cabinet meeting comes as Israel’s forced starvation of Gaza claimed at least four new victims over the past 24 hours, according to health officials.
Huge tariffs on more than 90 countries took effect shortly after midnight on Thursday. President Trump slapped one of the highest tariff rates of 50% on India — set to go into effect on August 27 — unless India stops buying Russian oil. Democracy Now! speaks with Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on the hypocrisy of the tariffs.
White House officials have confirmed that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet as early as next week to discuss the war in Ukraine. It would be the first U.S.-Russia summit in more than four years. Trump reportedly plans to follow up that meeting with another three-way meeting between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We speak with The New York Times opinion columnist M.
The president is trying to bring a taste of Mar-a-Lago to D.C.—but it’s not as unprecedented as some people think.
Cheyna Roth joins Emily Peck to dissect the money on display in And Just Like That…
Should you check your bag or carry-on? A discussion.
Is the mobile betting boom ruining the integrity of major league sports? Does it matter?
Yes, the president firing the BLS commissioner is bad. Really bad.
The move ends investments in projects involving mRNA technology.
The president overruled his HHS secretary and FDA chief, four people with knowledge of the decision tell POLITICO.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary has taken a personal interest in addressing hormone therapy treatment for menopause.
Some in Congress have put pressure on the FDA to review the pill, which ends pregnancy before 10 weeks.
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Bill Beach said the president’s suggestions that the jobs report was rigged betrayed a misunderstanding in how those numbers are assembled.
The monthly jobs report showed just 73,000 jobs in July, with big reductions to May’s and June’s numbers
The president’s approval rating had been ticking upward since its biggest drop in April.
More than 50 Democrats in the Texas Legislature have left the state to block the passage of a new congressional map, which was gerrymandered to give Republicans five extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The new map would especially harm Latino and Black representation in Congress, but President Trump is pushing for it in order to retain a Republican majority in the 2026 midterm election. “Texas is essentially just going to be the guinea pig.
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.
Donald Trump doesn’t want you to read this article.
Don’t let it go to your head, and I won’t let it go to mine; we’re not special. He doesn’t want anyone reading anything about Jeffrey Epstein, or his own relationship with the late sex offender.
As New York Governor Kathy Hochul denounced the GOP’s aggressive attempt to gerrymander Democrats into political oblivion this week, she lamented her party’s built-in disadvantage. “I’m tired of fighting this fight with my hand tied behind my back,” she told reporters.
As political metaphors go, it’s not a bad one. Hochul omitted a key detail, however: Democrats provided the rope themselves. For more than a decade, they’ve tried to be the party of good government on redistricting.
