This is an edition of the revamped Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here.At my small liberal-arts college, the freshmen were taught on the first day to chant in ancient Greek the opening line of The Iliad.
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 do you think America will be like in 2050?Send your responses to conor@theatlantic.com or simply reply to this email.
In the largest strike of healthcare workers in U.S. history, 75,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers across the country walked off the job this week, seeking higher pay, better staffing, improvements in their pension plans and other benefits.
We speak to the attorney suing Columbia University and its affiliated hospitals on behalf of some 300 more patients who say they were sexually assaulted by former Columbia University obstetrician Robert Hadden over two decades while Columbia shielded the sexual predator. Anthony T. DiPietro filed a new lawsuit against the university and its affiliated hospitals earlier this week. “Columbia knew from the beginning,” DiPietro says of Hadden’s abuse and its subsequent cover-up.
On Wednesday, hundreds of medical students and sexual assault survivors of former university obstetrician Robert Hadden protested at Columbia University’s campus calling for accountability during the inauguration ceremony of the university’s first woman president.
We get an update on Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston. New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking to fine Trump $250 million and is asking for a permanent ban on Trump family members running a business in New York. The outcome of the trial could put the future of the Trump Organization in jeopardy.
Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her work fighting against women’s oppression in Iran. Mohammadi will not be able to personally receive the prize because she is currently incarcerated in Iran for her protest activities.
The discord threatens gridlock on bills affecting how doctors practice and how much they are paid.
The decision preserves the Biden administration’s power to begin haggling with drug companies over the prices of 10 medications.
A super PAC affiliate is spending $13 million far ahead of the normal advertising timeline.
The United Nations Security Council has approved an international armed force to address spiraling gang violence in Haiti, where street battles have paralyzed the capital Port-au-Prince since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. The U.N. mission, which came at the repeated request of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, is being led by Kenya, marking the first deployment of international security forces to Haiti in nearly 20 years. The U.S.
Laphonza Butler was sworn in Tuesday to fill the California Senate seat of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died last week at age 90. This makes Butler the only Black woman currently in the Senate and the first out Black lesbian in Congress — but the appointment also frustrated many progressives who had been pushing for Congressmember Barbara Lee to get the nod.
Democrats united Tuesday to join a revolt by far-right Republicans to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after just nine months on the job. No other speaker in U.S. history has ever been voted out, and the unprecedented development has thrown the House into deeper chaos and ground legislation to a halt. Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina has taken up the speaker’s gavel temporarily, but who can unite the party’s fractious caucus remains a mystery.
The end of Oktoberfest in Germany, cranberry harvesting in Ontario, drought-affected regions in Indonesia and Brazil, scenes from the Asian Games in China, the end of sheep grazing season in Poland, migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, and much more
“Congressman Jim Jordan has been a STAR long before making his very successful journey to Washington, D.C.,” Trump said.
The former president allegedly spoke about the vessels during an event at his Mar-a-Lago club after he left the White House.
President Joe Biden said he had no choice but to use the Trump-era funding for the barrier to stop illegal migration from Mexico.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer were among those to bid the late senator a farewell at San Francisco City Hall.
It was inevitable that this shoe was going to drop, and now it finally has: Donald Trump allegedly leaked classified national security secrets to a guest at his chintzy Mar-a-Lago resort. ABC News has the story.
Months after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about U.S.
Jon Fosse, the Norwegian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2023, was better known in the English-speaking world on announcement morning than many past winners have been. Last year saw the U.S. publication of the final volume of his Septology, which was shortlisted for several major awards and has attracted more and more readers by word of mouth.
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.Yesterday, President Joe Biden announced an additional $9 billion in student-loan forgiveness.
The former president is reportedly mulling a visit to Capitol Hill next week.
Just when you thought the Republican drama in the House couldn’t get any worse …
Donald Trump is now meddling in the House speaker’s race, injecting new levels of chaos into the process. In fact, things are such a mess that the mainstream media has had no choice but to finally acknowledge that, yes, Republicans are the problem. But even that remains a work in progress. Much of the national press continues to cover up the fact that Trump is unraveling.
You can read more great Ukraine coverage by both staff and community members here.
Try and imagine a world in which Sen. Bernie Sanders is a war-mongering neocon shill for the military industrial complex.
I dare you, try!
Not happening? Well, that’s because you’re not a pro-Putin tankie.
The opening pages of C Pam Zhang’s second novel, Land of Milk and Honey, imagine a planet facing crisis after crisis—an extension of our own. Climate change has devastated the land: the Earth is covered in smog; crops have withered; countries are caving to famine. Zhang joins a number of other writers who have recently used their work to ask how to live in a dying world.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which handles federal cases arising from Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, is dominated by a bunch of Donald Trump appointees and has become the rogue court of the federal judiciary. The sheer volume of controversial decisions coming out of that court accounts for the outsize proportion of cases from it the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this session.
No one alive has seen a race like the 2024 presidential election. For months, if not years, many people have expected a reprise of the 2020 election, a matchup between the sitting president and a former president.But that hasn’t prevented a crowded primary. On the GOP side, more than a dozen candidates are ostensibly vying for the nomination.
It’s not as if Donald Trump is ever constrained in his speech. Even the day after a judge in a New York courtroom ordered an end to attacks on members of the court staff, Trump stepped out to attack that judge in person and on social media.
