Biden Slams Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Relentless Push To Dumb Down Florida Education
“I think every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every education opportunity possible,” the president tweeted.
Today's Liberal News
The Real Elitists Are at Fox News
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.Right-wing political and media figures regularly level the accusation of “elitism” at other Americans.
Radio Atlantic: This Is Not Your Parents’ Cold War
During the Cold War, NATO had nightmares of hundreds of thousands of Moscow’s troops pouring across international borders and igniting a major ground war with a democracy in Europe. Western governments feared that such a move by the Kremlin would lead to escalation—first to a world war and perhaps even to a nuclear conflict.That was then; this is now.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is nearly a year old, and the Ukrainians are holding on.
I Never Truly Understood Fox News Until Now
The basic story of Fox News and the 2020 election is well understood. Fox’s relatively small news operation covered the vote count accurately; this coverage infuriated President Donald Trump, the MAGA base, and Fox’s opinion stars; some viewers temporarily flipped to further-right outlets, such as Newsmax; and Fox panicked.But thanks to Dominion Voting Systems, which is pursuing a $1.
John Fetterman and the Performance of Wellness
Yesterday, Senator John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who suffered a stroke at the near-peak of his political campaign last May, announced that he was checking into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to treat a case of obdurate depression.
I Watched Elon Musk Kill Twitter’s Culture From the Inside
Everyone has an opinion about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. I lived it. I saw firsthand the harms that can flow from unchecked power in tech. But it’s not too late to turn things around.I joined Twitter in 2021 from Parity AI, a company I founded to identify and fix biases in algorithms used in a range of industries, including banking, education, and pharmaceuticals.
Brazilian Amazon Leader Urges Lula to Prosecute Bolsonaro for Genocide Against Indigenous Yamomami
The new Brazilian government recently conducted operations to expel thousands of illegal gold miners from Indigenous Yanomami land in the Amazon rainforest. The miners have caused a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami who have suffered from severe malnutrition and illness from illegal mining operations that have polluted rivers and destroyed forests.
Silencing Critics of Israel: Biden Pulls Nomination of Human Rights Lawyer For Decrying Apartheid
Last Friday, the State Department announced the nomination of James Cavallaro, a widely respected human rights attorney, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. But earlier this week, the State Department withdrew Cavallaro’s nomination after reports emerged that he had described Israel as an apartheid state and had criticized House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s close ties to AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Corporate Greed and Deregulation Fuel Threat of More Bomb Trains As East Palestine Demands Answers
We look at the failures that led to the massive train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that blanketed the town with a toxic brew of spilled chemicals and gases, fouling the air, polluting waterways and killing thousands of fish and frogs. Residents are suffering ailments including respiratory distress, sore throats, burning eyes and rashes, all with unknown long-term consequences. Many say they do not trust officials who tell them it is safe to return to their homes.
Three years into the pandemic, nursing home residents are still in Covid’s crosshairs
Scaling back on vaccine clinics and not updating staff vaccine requirements has slowed down booster rates at nursing homes, advocates say.
Governors find common cause in fighting addiction
“That is probably going to be the nexus of real bipartisan work,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said.
Republicans clash with prosecutors over enforcement of abortion bans
GOP officials want to oust DAs who won’t bring charges over abortion.
Biden’s 2022 State of the Union report card: Where he delivered — and fell flat
The president promised a lot last year. Here’s how we graded him on some of those pledges.
Biden on robust jobs numbers: The ‘critics and cynics are wrong’
Noting the 3.4 percent jobless rate, the lowest since May 1969, the president said “the Biden economic play is working.
Wall Street’s biggest bear: Fed’s Jerome Powell
Fed officials are signaling that they’re determined to keep their vise-like grip on the economy through the end of 2023.
Yellen to stay on as Biden’s Treasury chief as debt fight looms
People close to Yellen said she had considered leaving for family reasons and because the Treasury job is highly political — and would become more so with Republicans in control of the House.
Fox News Hosts Didn’t Believe Election Fraud Claims, Court Filings Reveal
“Sidney Powell is lying” about having evidence for a rigged election, Tucker Carlson told a producer, according to a court exhibit.
Trump Outlandishly Claims Georgia Grand Jury Excerpts Are ‘Total Exoneration’ Of Him
Trump says his name was not even “mentioned” in the released sections of the investigation. But no one was named in the excerpts, by order of the judge.
Black Tennessee Lawmaker Shuts Down Republicans For Bashing His Dashiki
“Resistance and subversion to the status quo ought to make some people uncomfortable,” state Rep. Justin J. Pearson said about the criticism.
Kari Lake Loses Appeal In Arizona Governor Race Challenge
An Arizona appeals court has rejected Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Michael Cohen Calls Trump’s Subpoena Of Him The ‘Dumbest Move’ He Can Imagine
“As much as they think they’re going to bully me, it’s not going to happen. They’re not going to benefit from it,” Trump’s former attorney told MSNBC.
The Truth About Aliens Is Still Out There
The question is not whether aliens exist—I’m firmly in the “Hell yeah, they do!” camp—but rather when we’ll have enough hard evidence to end the decades-long debate over said existence.Believers in UFOs have gotten some tantalizing clues over the past few years. Those 2019 New York Times videos of zig-zagging, Tic Tac–like vessels with curious propulsion are always worth a rewatch.
The (Still) Unsettled Science of Masking
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.“Masking has widely been seen as one of the best COVID precautions that people can take,” my colleague Yasmin Tayag wrote this week in The Atlantic.
Buttons Are Bougie Now
The 2022 Ford Bronco Raptor, among the most expensive offerings in the car manufacturer’s line of tough-guy throwback SUVs, features 418 horsepower, a 10-speed transmission, axles borrowed from off-road-racing vehicles, and 37-inch tires meant for driving off sand dunes at unnecessarily high speeds. But when the automotive site Jalopnik got its hands on a Bronco Raptor for testing, the writer José Rodríguez Jr.
AI Search Is a Disaster
Last week, both Microsoft and Google announced that they would incorporate AI programs similar to ChatGPT into their search engines—bids to transform how we find information online into a conversation with an omniscient chatbot. One problem: These language models are notorious mythomaniacs.
Kentucky Supreme Court leaves abortion ban in place
The decision not to grant a preliminary injunction comes just a few months after voters in Kentucky rejected a ballot measure that would have amended the state constitution to say there is no protection for the procedure.
Bomb Train: Norfolk Southern Refuses to Attend First Public Meeting on Toxic Train Derailment in Ohio
Hundreds of residents of East Palestine, Ohio, packed into their first town hall meeting Wednesday night after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed and a “controlled” burn sent a mushroom cloud of toxic chemicals into the air. Many said they distrusted the train operator Norfolk Southern and their elected officials, who told residents the air and water were safe last Wednesday.
Rising U.S. Interest Rates Push Countries in Global South Toward Economic Collapse
Soaring inflation and devalued currencies have created a catastrophic debt crisis for much of the world, including in countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Malaysian economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram says the instability is largely driven by interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which have the effect of increasing borrowing costs for poorer countries and devaluing their currencies compared to the U.S. dollar. The intensifying U.S.
“A Human-Made Disaster”: Kurdish MP in Southern Turkey Slams Government As Death Toll Hits 42,000
We get an update on last week’s earthquakes from Turkish parliament member Hişyar Özsoy, in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakır in southern Turkey, who says the devastation there reflects a lack of planning and regulation that led to so many buildings collapsing. “This is not a natural disaster in Turkey. It is a human-made disaster,” says Özsoy.
Syria Faces “Nightmare Situation” as Aid Stalls Amid Sanctions and Earthquake Death Toll Keeps Rising
The death toll from the massive earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 is nearing 42,000 and continues to rise as many face a lack of shelter and access to aid. The effects are especially dire in northwest Syria, which was already facing a humanitarian crisis prior to the earthquakes after nearly 12 years of war. Othman Moqbel, CEO of Action For Humanity, the parent charity of Syria Relief, says other countries must do more to support Syrians.