https://theweek.com/instant-opinion Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:18:58 +0000 en ‘America’s 911 system is dangerously out of date’

Rebecca Neusteter at Time

Many Americans “may be surprised to learn a sobering truth: The 911 professionals who answer the phone are often unable to automatically pinpoint a caller’s precise location and cannot always rely on callers themselves,” says Rebecca Neusteter. The U.S. “has let our 911 emergency response system languish for decades, failing to make the necessary investments to bring it into the digital age.” Updating “911 technology should be a national priority, and Congress must provide sufficient funding.”

Read more

‘The Trump administration is claiming success in drug strikes. Not so fast.’

Daniel DePetris at the Chicago Tribune

“Cartels in Mexico and gangs in Ecuador are now considered to be in the same league as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State — this, despite the fact that cartels have no political ideology and are predominantly concerned with making money,” says Daniel DePetris. But “boat strikes don’t seem to be doing much of anything to reduce the flow of drugs.” By “waging an actual war on drugs, the powers that be in Washington are confusing tactical accomplishments with strategic ones.”

Read more

‘It’s time for America’s workers to take their power back’

Fred Redmond at Newsweek

This “Labor Day, it is important to remember that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot at the American dream: a good job with decent wages to support a family and the chance to one day retire,” says Fred Redmond. Families are “stressing over every expense,” and for “Black workers and other workers of color, that dream is moving further out of reach.” Unions “fight for economic justice and for racial justice,” and “those fights are not separate.”

Read more

‘Sexual strangulation is derailing a generation of girls’

Debra Soh at The Globe and Mail

What was “once considered aggravated assault is now an accepted part of modern dating,” says Debra Soh. Sexual choking “has become so normalized” that “both sexes believe the practice is benign, which is a myth that pornography, social media and sex educators promote.” But “there is no safe way to partake in choking, because it doesn’t require much pressure on a person’s neck for unwanted side effects to happen, including memory loss, headaches, stroke and brain damage.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-911-emergency-drugs-labor-day-sex r92WjT7YatdWT2q47oDHka Tue, 08 Sep 2026 18:18:58 +0000 Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:51:53 +0000 false false false

‘America’s 911 system is dangerously out of date’

Rebecca Neusteter at Time

Many Americans “may be surprised to learn a sobering truth: The 911 professionals who answer the phone are often unable to automatically pinpoint a caller’s precise location and cannot always rely on callers themselves,” says Rebecca Neusteter. The U.S. “has let our 911 emergency response system languish for decades, failing to make the necessary investments to bring it into the digital age.” Updating “911 technology should be a national priority, and Congress must provide sufficient funding.”

Read more

‘The Trump administration is claiming success in drug strikes. Not so fast.’

Daniel DePetris at the Chicago Tribune

“Cartels in Mexico and gangs in Ecuador are now considered to be in the same league as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State — this, despite the fact that cartels have no political ideology and are predominantly concerned with making money,” says Daniel DePetris. But “boat strikes don’t seem to be doing much of anything to reduce the flow of drugs.” By “waging an actual war on drugs, the powers that be in Washington are confusing tactical accomplishments with strategic ones.”

Read more

‘It’s time for America’s workers to take their power back’

Fred Redmond at Newsweek

This “Labor Day, it is important to remember that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot at the American dream: a good job with decent wages to support a family and the chance to one day retire,” says Fred Redmond. Families are “stressing over every expense,” and for “Black workers and other workers of color, that dream is moving further out of reach.” Unions “fight for economic justice and for racial justice,” and “those fights are not separate.”

Read more

‘Sexual strangulation is derailing a generation of girls’

Debra Soh at The Globe and Mail

What was “once considered aggravated assault is now an accepted part of modern dating,” says Debra Soh. Sexual choking “has become so normalized” that “both sexes believe the practice is benign, which is a myth that pornography, social media and sex educators promote.” But “there is no safe way to partake in choking, because it doesn’t require much pressure on a person’s neck for unwanted side effects to happen, including memory loss, headaches, stroke and brain damage.”

Read more

]]> ‘Gloria Steinem’s final essay’

Gloria Steinem at The New Yorker

Opposition “will always come from people whose power rests on the group they were born into” rather “than on what they do as individuals,” says Gloria Steinem. “Saying that I am a feminist has always meant that I believe in the social, economic and political equality of all males and females of all races and groups.” For “some, it remains a mystery why women need a movement to distinguish our efforts toward equality. For me, it seems quite obvious.”

Read more

‘America needs its boys to play football’

Ben Sasse at The Wall Street Journal

Football is “back, and America’s boys need to play it and be shaped by it,” says Ben Sasse. While “controversy surrounds the embarrassingly blurry line between college football and the National Football League, our culture needs to take a moment to commend and steward the glorious tradition of high school football.” Americans “need young men full of energy, ambition and growing self-mastery,” and football is a “character-forming institution.” Football “creates the conditions for less, rather than more, violence.”

Read more

‘Debt, a new challenge for democracies’

Le Monde editorial board

In the “United States, Europe and Japan, investors now demand higher returns to lend to governments,” which “reveals mounting concerns over the accumulation of public deficits and the sheer volume that governments must now raise on financial markets,” says the Le Monde editorial board. Returning to “fiscal fundamentals has been painful just as funding needs have reached new highs.” The “current increase in rates acts like a vise, reducing governments’ ability to fund new priorities while making past commitments more expensive.”

Read more

‘Will those in prison help save the arts from AI?’

Mark Osler at The Minnesota Star Tribune

While on the “outside AI is increasingly doing our writing, creating our images and subverting creativity, on the inside of a prison none of that is happening — and the results can be stunning,” says Mark Osler. What is “new isn’t the existence of remarkable talent in prison,” but the “decay of the creative world outside the prison walls.” The U.S. “needs to invest in the arts within prisons and encourage more interaction across those walls.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-gloria-steinem-football-debt-prison-ai LCaWDCRq2c4nhxf6PKZTQZ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 18:29:54 +0000 false false false

‘Gloria Steinem’s final essay’

Gloria Steinem at The New Yorker

Opposition “will always come from people whose power rests on the group they were born into” rather “than on what they do as individuals,” says Gloria Steinem. “Saying that I am a feminist has always meant that I believe in the social, economic and political equality of all males and females of all races and groups.” For “some, it remains a mystery why women need a movement to distinguish our efforts toward equality. For me, it seems quite obvious.”

Read more

‘America needs its boys to play football’

Ben Sasse at The Wall Street Journal

Football is “back, and America’s boys need to play it and be shaped by it,” says Ben Sasse. While “controversy surrounds the embarrassingly blurry line between college football and the National Football League, our culture needs to take a moment to commend and steward the glorious tradition of high school football.” Americans “need young men full of energy, ambition and growing self-mastery,” and football is a “character-forming institution.” Football “creates the conditions for less, rather than more, violence.”

Read more

‘Debt, a new challenge for democracies’

Le Monde editorial board

In the “United States, Europe and Japan, investors now demand higher returns to lend to governments,” which “reveals mounting concerns over the accumulation of public deficits and the sheer volume that governments must now raise on financial markets,” says the Le Monde editorial board. Returning to “fiscal fundamentals has been painful just as funding needs have reached new highs.” The “current increase in rates acts like a vise, reducing governments’ ability to fund new priorities while making past commitments more expensive.”

Read more

‘Will those in prison help save the arts from AI?’

Mark Osler at The Minnesota Star Tribune

While on the “outside AI is increasingly doing our writing, creating our images and subverting creativity, on the inside of a prison none of that is happening — and the results can be stunning,” says Mark Osler. What is “new isn’t the existence of remarkable talent in prison,” but the “decay of the creative world outside the prison walls.” The U.S. “needs to invest in the arts within prisons and encourage more interaction across those walls.”

Read more

]]> ‘The Met’s other failure’

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell at The Atlantic

The “Metropolitan Museum of Art’s announcement this week that it is canceling next year’s exhibition on the fashion of John Galliano perhaps shouldn’t have come as a surprise,” says Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, since a court previously found him “guilty of the crime of making antisemitic and anti-Asian insults.” The exhibition was “also a blow to the museum and its reputation.” Displaying “Galliano’s work, even while interrogating his past behavior, was always going to be ethically dicey.”

Read more

‘Black women are poised for congressional gains in November’

Donna Brazile at The Hill

Black women candidates “could make historic gains in the November midterm elections,” says Donna Brazile. That is “good news for all Americans, because it’s a sign our country is overcoming centuries of racism and sexism to take advantage of everyone’s talents.” The Black women “who get elected will make America even greater than it already is because our nation’s diversity enables all types of people to combine their differing knowledge, experiences and perspectives to work together to build a better future.”

Read more

‘Dan Driscoll is the first “Washington casualty” of the Iran war. We should all be concerned.’

Jeff McCausland at MS NOW

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll “delivered his resignation to President Donald Trump on Monday, thus becoming one of the first significant ‘Washington casualties’ of the Iran war,” says Jeff McCausland. Driscoll “repeatedly clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” and his “resignation comes at a particularly consequential moment.” The “war with Iran that Hegseth strongly advocated for looks more and more like a strategic disaster, and Driscoll’s departure is more evidence that the defense secretary is seeking to surround himself with loyalists.”

Read more

‘The US national debt has reached $40 trillion. Should you care?’

Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times

The “revelation that the national debt had reached $40 trillion” provoked “vigorous hand-wringing across the partisan spectrum and multiple hives of economists,” says Michael Hiltzik. It is “true that there’s reason for all of us to be concerned about the size of America’s debt,” as “rising rates mean higher costs.” But it “doesn’t pay to be mistaken about what’s driving those costs.” It’s “not Social Security or Medicare. It’s ignorant and incompetent policymaking in the White House.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-met-galliano-black-women-army-debt XWCZMhsGmJgw4cbFMJ6cub Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:54:03 +0000 Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:58:17 +0000 false false false

‘The Met’s other failure’

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell at The Atlantic

The “Metropolitan Museum of Art’s announcement this week that it is canceling next year’s exhibition on the fashion of John Galliano perhaps shouldn’t have come as a surprise,” says Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, since a court previously found him “guilty of the crime of making antisemitic and anti-Asian insults.” The exhibition was “also a blow to the museum and its reputation.” Displaying “Galliano’s work, even while interrogating his past behavior, was always going to be ethically dicey.”

Read more

‘Black women are poised for congressional gains in November’

Donna Brazile at The Hill

Black women candidates “could make historic gains in the November midterm elections,” says Donna Brazile. That is “good news for all Americans, because it’s a sign our country is overcoming centuries of racism and sexism to take advantage of everyone’s talents.” The Black women “who get elected will make America even greater than it already is because our nation’s diversity enables all types of people to combine their differing knowledge, experiences and perspectives to work together to build a better future.”

Read more

‘Dan Driscoll is the first “Washington casualty” of the Iran war. We should all be concerned.’

Jeff McCausland at MS NOW

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll “delivered his resignation to President Donald Trump on Monday, thus becoming one of the first significant ‘Washington casualties’ of the Iran war,” says Jeff McCausland. Driscoll “repeatedly clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” and his “resignation comes at a particularly consequential moment.” The “war with Iran that Hegseth strongly advocated for looks more and more like a strategic disaster, and Driscoll’s departure is more evidence that the defense secretary is seeking to surround himself with loyalists.”

Read more

‘The US national debt has reached $40 trillion. Should you care?’

Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times

The “revelation that the national debt had reached $40 trillion” provoked “vigorous hand-wringing across the partisan spectrum and multiple hives of economists,” says Michael Hiltzik. It is “true that there’s reason for all of us to be concerned about the size of America’s debt,” as “rising rates mean higher costs.” But it “doesn’t pay to be mistaken about what’s driving those costs.” It’s “not Social Security or Medicare. It’s ignorant and incompetent policymaking in the White House.”

Read more

]]> ‘Save the children. Ban everyone age 18 and older from social media.’

Joe Mathews at the San Francisco Chronicle

“Ban everyone age 18 and older from social media,” says Joe Mathews. Adults are “having the wrong conversation about digital safety.” Every “week, more grave-faced politicians declare that we must protect kids by banning them from social media, even though most unhinged people online are old enough to vote.” If any “demographic has proved it cannot handle an unmoderated feed, it is fully grown adults.” If “adults ban ourselves from social media tomorrow, what do we really lose?”

Read more

‘The unique horrors of AI food slop’

Brady Brickner-Wood at The New Yorker

The “next frontier of food imagery has proven far less appealing than whatever food porn was,” says Brady Brickner-Wood. Restaurants are “plastering menus and promotional materials with AI-generated” food. A “nauseating, nightmarish quality defines AI’s insectified interpretation of human cuisine, as if food were just another surrealist goo to stochastically iterate upon.” These “renderings of food — genuinely, slop — offend the materiality of the living in a way that AI’s distortions of words and other inanimate objects somehow do not.”

Read more

‘The price of Russian paranoia’

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan at Foreign Affairs

As “Russia’s war in Ukraine becomes increasingly costly with no end in sight, the Kremlin has kept tightening its grip over Russian society,” say Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan. Less “apparent, though, is the dramatic shift in domestic security doctrine that undergirds these efforts.” Rule by “spy hunting and paranoia has also come with significant costs,” as “proliferating social controls and prosecutions for treason have created a pervasive climate of mistrust and fueled a sense of paralysis.”

Read more

‘Trump’s ‘Golden Age’? Well, yes — for dollar stores.’

Harold Meyerson at The American Prospect

Americans are “not experiencing the Trump Boom in quite the same way that Trump is,” says Harold Meyerson. The economy has “positive metrics to be found, so long as they don’t concern the experience of the American people as such.” Most “revealingly, because this is a metric that does reflect the experience of the American people, business at dollar stores is up and rising.” These stores are the “canary in the coal mine when the economy is going to hell.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-adults-social-media-ai-food-russia-dollar-stores 6XG6EYL7okRHEMBjmVCTY9 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:15:37 +0000 false false false

‘Save the children. Ban everyone age 18 and older from social media.’

Joe Mathews at the San Francisco Chronicle

“Ban everyone age 18 and older from social media,” says Joe Mathews. Adults are “having the wrong conversation about digital safety.” Every “week, more grave-faced politicians declare that we must protect kids by banning them from social media, even though most unhinged people online are old enough to vote.” If any “demographic has proved it cannot handle an unmoderated feed, it is fully grown adults.” If “adults ban ourselves from social media tomorrow, what do we really lose?”

Read more

‘The unique horrors of AI food slop’

Brady Brickner-Wood at The New Yorker

The “next frontier of food imagery has proven far less appealing than whatever food porn was,” says Brady Brickner-Wood. Restaurants are “plastering menus and promotional materials with AI-generated” food. A “nauseating, nightmarish quality defines AI’s insectified interpretation of human cuisine, as if food were just another surrealist goo to stochastically iterate upon.” These “renderings of food — genuinely, slop — offend the materiality of the living in a way that AI’s distortions of words and other inanimate objects somehow do not.”

Read more

‘The price of Russian paranoia’

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan at Foreign Affairs

As “Russia’s war in Ukraine becomes increasingly costly with no end in sight, the Kremlin has kept tightening its grip over Russian society,” say Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan. Less “apparent, though, is the dramatic shift in domestic security doctrine that undergirds these efforts.” Rule by “spy hunting and paranoia has also come with significant costs,” as “proliferating social controls and prosecutions for treason have created a pervasive climate of mistrust and fueled a sense of paralysis.”

Read more

‘Trump’s ‘Golden Age’? Well, yes — for dollar stores.’

Harold Meyerson at The American Prospect

Americans are “not experiencing the Trump Boom in quite the same way that Trump is,” says Harold Meyerson. The economy has “positive metrics to be found, so long as they don’t concern the experience of the American people as such.” Most “revealingly, because this is a metric that does reflect the experience of the American people, business at dollar stores is up and rising.” These stores are the “canary in the coal mine when the economy is going to hell.”

Read more

]]> ‘Saving money is hard enough. Stop taxing workers under 25.’

Sam Raus at USA Today

Before “young people have accumulated any meaningful savings, the government is already taking a share of every paycheck,” says Sam Raus. The “question needs to be: Why are we taxing them in the first place?” The U.S. “already subsidizes housing, education and healthcare through an array of programs.” A “simpler alternative deserves consideration: Exempt workers under 25 from federal income and payroll taxes, allowing them to build financial security before the government begins collecting a share of their earnings.”

Read more

‘What should we do with Trump’s monstrous architectural legacy?’

Jan-Werner Muller at The Guardian

Since a Supreme Court “ruling will embolden the president dramatically to change Washington, D.C.’s landscape by spending money never approved by Congress, we might be cursed with a triumphal arch as well,” says Jan-Werner Muller. This “raises the question: What to do with a monstrous architectural legacy in post-Trump America?” Some “might dismiss the question.” But the “decision to leave Trump’s structures in place as if his reign had just been another normal era in U.S. history is not neutral.”

Read more

‘After the flash flood disaster, here is what Nepal really needs’

Dikshya Subedi at Al Jazeera

Days “after the flood that struck the Rasuwa and Nuwakot regions of Nepal, the number of missing people is growing,” says Dikshya Subedi, and the “threat is far from over.” While Nepal “could not realistically have prevented the initial collapse, the scale of the disaster highlights glaring gaps in disaster risk reduction and preparedness under a changed climate reality.” The country “urgently needs real, funded investment in early-warning systems for glacial and flood hazards in high-risk mountain corridors.”

Read more

‘The Pacific is paying for America’s other wars’

Matthew J. DeSarno at The Dallas Morning News

The United States “says China is its most consequential military challenge,” but “our military deployments increasingly tell a different story,” says Matthew J. DeSarno. While Washington “prosecutes a war against Iran, expands military operations in the Western Hemisphere and continues supporting Ukraine, some of the weapons and naval forces most relevant to deterring China are being pulled toward other theaters.” The U.S. “has not suddenly become weak in the Pacific, but we are narrowing our margin for error there.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-taxes-finance-trump-nepal-flood-pacific 6tYk6KtaJVPWXzwxudADmH Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:58:01 +0000 false false false

‘Saving money is hard enough. Stop taxing workers under 25.’

Sam Raus at USA Today

Before “young people have accumulated any meaningful savings, the government is already taking a share of every paycheck,” says Sam Raus. The “question needs to be: Why are we taxing them in the first place?” The U.S. “already subsidizes housing, education and healthcare through an array of programs.” A “simpler alternative deserves consideration: Exempt workers under 25 from federal income and payroll taxes, allowing them to build financial security before the government begins collecting a share of their earnings.”

Read more

‘What should we do with Trump’s monstrous architectural legacy?’

Jan-Werner Muller at The Guardian

Since a Supreme Court “ruling will embolden the president dramatically to change Washington, D.C.’s landscape by spending money never approved by Congress, we might be cursed with a triumphal arch as well,” says Jan-Werner Muller. This “raises the question: What to do with a monstrous architectural legacy in post-Trump America?” Some “might dismiss the question.” But the “decision to leave Trump’s structures in place as if his reign had just been another normal era in U.S. history is not neutral.”

Read more

‘After the flash flood disaster, here is what Nepal really needs’

Dikshya Subedi at Al Jazeera

Days “after the flood that struck the Rasuwa and Nuwakot regions of Nepal, the number of missing people is growing,” says Dikshya Subedi, and the “threat is far from over.” While Nepal “could not realistically have prevented the initial collapse, the scale of the disaster highlights glaring gaps in disaster risk reduction and preparedness under a changed climate reality.” The country “urgently needs real, funded investment in early-warning systems for glacial and flood hazards in high-risk mountain corridors.”

Read more

‘The Pacific is paying for America’s other wars’

Matthew J. DeSarno at The Dallas Morning News

The United States “says China is its most consequential military challenge,” but “our military deployments increasingly tell a different story,” says Matthew J. DeSarno. While Washington “prosecutes a war against Iran, expands military operations in the Western Hemisphere and continues supporting Ukraine, some of the weapons and naval forces most relevant to deterring China are being pulled toward other theaters.” The U.S. “has not suddenly become weak in the Pacific, but we are narrowing our margin for error there.”

Read more

]]> ‘Mirror life is theoretical. The danger is anything but.’

Nidhi Kalra at The Washington Post

Mirror life “could theoretically be built out of biological molecules that are mirror images of the ones that exist naturally,” as it’s “possible to imagine — and maybe even create — a living organism made of mirror-image counterparts to natural biomolecules,” says Nidhi Kalra. Scientists “warn that mirror bacteria could devastate most life on Earth,” as it “might not be recognized by the things — immune systems, enzymes and other predator microorganisms — that keep normal bacteria in check.”

Read more

‘Tanzania’s dam is a massive moment for African self-finance’

Mihir Sharma at Bloomberg

Tanzania’s new hydroelectric dam has “doubled domestic generation capacity,” and “that’s the sort of energy abundance even developed countries dream of,” says Mihir Sharma. The country “has achieved this almost entirely on its own dime.” Given the “many pitfalls associated with big dams, it’s remarkable that Tanzania has pulled this off.” Western investors have “turned away from big projects in the emerging world and from hydropower in particular,” but “countries are discovering they can do it for themselves.”

Read more

‘Uzbekistan’s startups could give the US an edge in Central Asia’

Bruno S. Sergi at Newsweek

A “few years ago, the idea of a billion-dollar Uzbek tech company would have sounded far-fetched,” but “today, investors are searching for the next Uzum, Uzbekistan’s largest digital ecosystem,” says Bruno S. Sergi. This is “exactly why Uzbekistan matters.” If the U.S. “wants Central Asia in its orbit and not locked into Russian surveillance tech, Chinese AI models and processing of its critical minerals, it needs a success story that is not built on sanctions or pressure, but on commerce.”

Read more

‘Why we love watching robots fail’

Kyle MacNeill at Time

Robotic “tumbling records will likely be, in the pop cultural consciousness, eclipsed by something far more entertaining: tumbling robots,” says Kyle MacNeill. Along with the “epic wins, there have been some seriously old-school, epic fails,” and “these slapstick scenes are deliciously satisfying.” This “robot schadenfreude is fueled by a fear of the future,” as “pointing out their flaws makes humanity’s finish line feel further away, even if that’s a highly unintelligent thing to think.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-mirror-life-tanzania-uzbekistan-robots 53a8hTPxAYMgASYxWyirkJ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:51:08 +0000 Mon, 31 Aug 2026 19:24:12 +0000 false false false

‘Mirror life is theoretical. The danger is anything but.’

Nidhi Kalra at The Washington Post

Mirror life “could theoretically be built out of biological molecules that are mirror images of the ones that exist naturally,” as it’s “possible to imagine — and maybe even create — a living organism made of mirror-image counterparts to natural biomolecules,” says Nidhi Kalra. Scientists “warn that mirror bacteria could devastate most life on Earth,” as it “might not be recognized by the things — immune systems, enzymes and other predator microorganisms — that keep normal bacteria in check.”

Read more

‘Tanzania’s dam is a massive moment for African self-finance’

Mihir Sharma at Bloomberg

Tanzania’s new hydroelectric dam has “doubled domestic generation capacity,” and “that’s the sort of energy abundance even developed countries dream of,” says Mihir Sharma. The country “has achieved this almost entirely on its own dime.” Given the “many pitfalls associated with big dams, it’s remarkable that Tanzania has pulled this off.” Western investors have “turned away from big projects in the emerging world and from hydropower in particular,” but “countries are discovering they can do it for themselves.”

Read more

‘Uzbekistan’s startups could give the US an edge in Central Asia’

Bruno S. Sergi at Newsweek

A “few years ago, the idea of a billion-dollar Uzbek tech company would have sounded far-fetched,” but “today, investors are searching for the next Uzum, Uzbekistan’s largest digital ecosystem,” says Bruno S. Sergi. This is “exactly why Uzbekistan matters.” If the U.S. “wants Central Asia in its orbit and not locked into Russian surveillance tech, Chinese AI models and processing of its critical minerals, it needs a success story that is not built on sanctions or pressure, but on commerce.”

Read more

‘Why we love watching robots fail’

Kyle MacNeill at Time

Robotic “tumbling records will likely be, in the pop cultural consciousness, eclipsed by something far more entertaining: tumbling robots,” says Kyle MacNeill. Along with the “epic wins, there have been some seriously old-school, epic fails,” and “these slapstick scenes are deliciously satisfying.” This “robot schadenfreude is fueled by a fear of the future,” as “pointing out their flaws makes humanity’s finish line feel further away, even if that’s a highly unintelligent thing to think.”

Read more

]]> ‘Healthcare is more badly broken than political leaders admit’

Marj Halperin at the Chicago Tribune

While “rising costs are a barrier for too many, even those who can afford comprehensive health insurance are finding money can’t buy you a timely appointment,” says Marj Halperin. Americans in cities are “now in much the same bind as patients in rural areas who have long found limited doctors available for routine care, with specialists often a few hours’ drive away.” It is “time for political leaders to spell out a strategy to speed in the opposite direction.”

Read more

‘A wildly popular movie meets the film world’s most revered label’

Sophia Nguyen at The Atlantic

“‘KPop Demon Hunters’ seems to have completely overtaken culture,” says Sophia Nguyen. But “even the most ardent fans likely did not anticipate the mega-hit’s next big merch drop: a disc release from the Criterion Collection, home to some of cinema’s most distinguished titles.” Some of the “label’s longtime devotees greeted the addition of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ with an eye roll,” but “Criterion has good reason to widen the net: Netflix, Apple and Amazon make and distribute a significant share of films.”

Read more

‘Trump’s tariffs prove even Canada can’t afford to be nice to the United States anymore’

The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board

It “fell to Canada, a country famous for friendliness, to demonstrate the limits of an age-old friendship with the United States,” says The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board. After a “decade of dealing politely with President Donald Trump’s manic ricocheting between trade agreements and trade warfare, supplies of northern niceness are sorely depleted, and rightly so.” Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “defiance in the face of his neighbor’s unprovoked bullying should inspire other traditional American allies to abandon appeasement.”

Read more

‘Meta’s $18 billion settlement could reshape social media for young people’

Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute

Meta “reached a landmark settlement and agreed to pay up to $18 billion to 47 states” to settle claims it “endangered children through addictive features,” says Tom Jones. Meta’s promised changes are “meant to curb endless scrolling, which can interrupt sleep and have other negative effects on young people’s health and well-being.” The “smart move for Meta was to settle,” as a “major challenge for all social media companies is verifying the ages of their users.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-healthcare-doctors-film-donald-trump-meta wddrK9GXVk4ERK3Rgb6mDM Fri, 28 Aug 2026 18:43:47 +0000 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 18:43:58 +0000 false false false

‘Healthcare is more badly broken than political leaders admit’

Marj Halperin at the Chicago Tribune

While “rising costs are a barrier for too many, even those who can afford comprehensive health insurance are finding money can’t buy you a timely appointment,” says Marj Halperin. Americans in cities are “now in much the same bind as patients in rural areas who have long found limited doctors available for routine care, with specialists often a few hours’ drive away.” It is “time for political leaders to spell out a strategy to speed in the opposite direction.”

Read more

‘A wildly popular movie meets the film world’s most revered label’

Sophia Nguyen at The Atlantic

“‘KPop Demon Hunters’ seems to have completely overtaken culture,” says Sophia Nguyen. But “even the most ardent fans likely did not anticipate the mega-hit’s next big merch drop: a disc release from the Criterion Collection, home to some of cinema’s most distinguished titles.” Some of the “label’s longtime devotees greeted the addition of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ with an eye roll,” but “Criterion has good reason to widen the net: Netflix, Apple and Amazon make and distribute a significant share of films.”

Read more

‘Trump’s tariffs prove even Canada can’t afford to be nice to the United States anymore’

The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board

It “fell to Canada, a country famous for friendliness, to demonstrate the limits of an age-old friendship with the United States,” says The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board. After a “decade of dealing politely with President Donald Trump’s manic ricocheting between trade agreements and trade warfare, supplies of northern niceness are sorely depleted, and rightly so.” Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “defiance in the face of his neighbor’s unprovoked bullying should inspire other traditional American allies to abandon appeasement.”

Read more

‘Meta’s $18 billion settlement could reshape social media for young people’

Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute

Meta “reached a landmark settlement and agreed to pay up to $18 billion to 47 states” to settle claims it “endangered children through addictive features,” says Tom Jones. Meta’s promised changes are “meant to curb endless scrolling, which can interrupt sleep and have other negative effects on young people’s health and well-being.” The “smart move for Meta was to settle,” as a “major challenge for all social media companies is verifying the ages of their users.”

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]]> ‘Video gamers alone can’t keep our skies safe’

Sheldon H. Jacobson at The Hill

The FAA is “recruiting video gamers for air traffic controller job openings,” but “adding more people into the existing system does little to resolve the structural issues that have led to persistent shortages,” says Sheldon H. Jacobson. Skills “developed by video gamers” are “similar to the skills used to manage dozens of flights in the sky in real time.” However, recruiting “video gamers to be air traffic controllers makes good sound bites but falls short of resolving staffing shortages.”

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‘A new poll shows how John Fetterman has created a 2028 predicament for himself’

Zeeshan Aleem at MS NOW

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s “popularity with Democrats has taken a nose dive in the last couple of years,” says Zeeshan Aleem. Fetterman “should not be shocked by how his own party’s voters have soured on him,” as he “still caucuses with the Democrats, but he’s made a name for himself by defecting from the party on several notable occasions.” Should he “seek reelection in 2028, it’s safe to wager that he would face tough chances of winning in a Democratic primary.”

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‘Trump’s Korean gambit exposes a shifting East Asian order’

Wenran Jiang at Al Jazeera

When President Donald Trump “ordered the Pentagon to cut the annual United States-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise,” he “laid bare the transactional logic of his approach to East Asia,” says Wenran Jiang. The move “blindsided Seoul and drew a calculated rebuff from Pyongyang, underscoring how growing doubts about the U.S. defense umbrella are reshaping strategic calculations across the region.” If Trump’s “rapprochement with Pyongyang produces only theater, North Korea’s nuclear program will continue to advance.”

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‘Public health advocates are so desperate for help against conspiracies they’ve turned to the place you’d least expect’

Molly Olmstead at Slate

Public health officials have one “innovative and surprising, if disconcerting, solution to our national public health information crisis: AI has the potential to help stave off a conspiratorial catastrophe during the next pandemic,” says Molly Olmstead. Looking to AI for “rescue is usually an eye-roll-worthy impulse,” as AI is a “Pandora’s box of yet-to-be-imagined evils.” But in “this case, the desperation of the situation might just call for public health advocates leaning into the dangerous new technology.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-faa-planes-fetterman-trump-korea-ai xpTAWmT56REu46CA9pKgD7 Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:44:24 +0000 false false false

‘Video gamers alone can’t keep our skies safe’

Sheldon H. Jacobson at The Hill

The FAA is “recruiting video gamers for air traffic controller job openings,” but “adding more people into the existing system does little to resolve the structural issues that have led to persistent shortages,” says Sheldon H. Jacobson. Skills “developed by video gamers” are “similar to the skills used to manage dozens of flights in the sky in real time.” However, recruiting “video gamers to be air traffic controllers makes good sound bites but falls short of resolving staffing shortages.”

Read more

‘A new poll shows how John Fetterman has created a 2028 predicament for himself’

Zeeshan Aleem at MS NOW

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman’s “popularity with Democrats has taken a nose dive in the last couple of years,” says Zeeshan Aleem. Fetterman “should not be shocked by how his own party’s voters have soured on him,” as he “still caucuses with the Democrats, but he’s made a name for himself by defecting from the party on several notable occasions.” Should he “seek reelection in 2028, it’s safe to wager that he would face tough chances of winning in a Democratic primary.”

Read more

‘Trump’s Korean gambit exposes a shifting East Asian order’

Wenran Jiang at Al Jazeera

When President Donald Trump “ordered the Pentagon to cut the annual United States-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise,” he “laid bare the transactional logic of his approach to East Asia,” says Wenran Jiang. The move “blindsided Seoul and drew a calculated rebuff from Pyongyang, underscoring how growing doubts about the U.S. defense umbrella are reshaping strategic calculations across the region.” If Trump’s “rapprochement with Pyongyang produces only theater, North Korea’s nuclear program will continue to advance.”

Read more

‘Public health advocates are so desperate for help against conspiracies they’ve turned to the place you’d least expect’

Molly Olmstead at Slate

Public health officials have one “innovative and surprising, if disconcerting, solution to our national public health information crisis: AI has the potential to help stave off a conspiratorial catastrophe during the next pandemic,” says Molly Olmstead. Looking to AI for “rescue is usually an eye-roll-worthy impulse,” as AI is a “Pandora’s box of yet-to-be-imagined evils.” But in “this case, the desperation of the situation might just call for public health advocates leaning into the dangerous new technology.”

Read more

]]> ‘Sports medicine must get better at treating women’

Ashley Austin at Newsweek

Even as “more eyes turn to women’s sports and female athletes surge in popularity, there’s still a great deal that sports medicine doctors don’t know about actually treating women,” says WNBA doctor Ashley Austin. Americans need “increased investment in women’s sports science — not just to improve outcomes for elite athletes but to improve care for women and girls across the healthcare system.” Doctors should learn to “provide care that is truly based on evidence specific to women’s anatomy and physiology.”

Read more

‘Are US black ops targeting boats in the Galapagos?’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

Attacks on “fishing boats off the coast of Ecuador earlier this year are surrounded by mystery and unanswered questions,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. The “evidence is scarce, but it is enough for Congress to start asking questions.” Who “ordered these attacks and to what end”? If there is “indeed some sort of black ops targeting fishermen with no accountability, it will mark another stain in a long, bad history of U.S. intervention in Latin America.”

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‘I’m a physicist. Congress is about to close the door that let me in.’

Stephanie L. Bailey at The Seattle Times

Somewhere in the “country, a talented future scientist is about to be overlooked, not for lack of ability, but because no one has decided they’re worth helping,” says Stephanie L. Bailey. Two House bill provisions “would bar federal science agencies from funding the offices and grants that broaden participation in STEM.” Some “argue federal agencies should simply fund the best science and that programs like these distract from that mission,” but “in fact, the opposite is true.”

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‘My road trip revealed the good and the bad that hold America together’

LZ Granderson at the Los Angeles Times

There is a “commonality I saw on my drive across America: homelessness,” says LZ Granderson. Americans “like to tell ourselves it’s a California problem, a Chicago problem — something that happens in big blue states.” But of the “states I drove through, all but one were red.” We are “teaching the next generation that, in the richest country that has ever existed, it is acceptable that some people are reduced to huddling in storefront entryways overnight.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-wnba-doctor-galapagos-physicist-homeless BPKjrv6DgvKzx6bzNurvNc Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:25:50 +0000 Wed, 26 Aug 2026 19:42:22 +0000 false false false

‘Sports medicine must get better at treating women’

Ashley Austin at Newsweek

Even as “more eyes turn to women’s sports and female athletes surge in popularity, there’s still a great deal that sports medicine doctors don’t know about actually treating women,” says WNBA doctor Ashley Austin. Americans need “increased investment in women’s sports science — not just to improve outcomes for elite athletes but to improve care for women and girls across the healthcare system.” Doctors should learn to “provide care that is truly based on evidence specific to women’s anatomy and physiology.”

Read more

‘Are US black ops targeting boats in the Galapagos?’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

Attacks on “fishing boats off the coast of Ecuador earlier this year are surrounded by mystery and unanswered questions,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. The “evidence is scarce, but it is enough for Congress to start asking questions.” Who “ordered these attacks and to what end”? If there is “indeed some sort of black ops targeting fishermen with no accountability, it will mark another stain in a long, bad history of U.S. intervention in Latin America.”

Read more

‘I’m a physicist. Congress is about to close the door that let me in.’

Stephanie L. Bailey at The Seattle Times

Somewhere in the “country, a talented future scientist is about to be overlooked, not for lack of ability, but because no one has decided they’re worth helping,” says Stephanie L. Bailey. Two House bill provisions “would bar federal science agencies from funding the offices and grants that broaden participation in STEM.” Some “argue federal agencies should simply fund the best science and that programs like these distract from that mission,” but “in fact, the opposite is true.”

Read more

‘My road trip revealed the good and the bad that hold America together’

LZ Granderson at the Los Angeles Times

There is a “commonality I saw on my drive across America: homelessness,” says LZ Granderson. Americans “like to tell ourselves it’s a California problem, a Chicago problem — something that happens in big blue states.” But of the “states I drove through, all but one were red.” We are “teaching the next generation that, in the richest country that has ever existed, it is acceptable that some people are reduced to huddling in storefront entryways overnight.”

Read more

]]> ‘Two weeks. No power. Gary, Indiana, failed Black citizens.’

Kofi Mframa at USA Today

For “two weeks, the people of Gary, Indiana, have been forced to weather the late summer heat without electricity,” says Kofi Mframa. Gary “didn’t just experience a freak weather event.” There were “layers upon layers of systemic failures that left a vulnerable population to fend for themselves.” Marginalized groups “being failed by systems in the wake of a natural disaster is no strange occurrence in America, but as our country’s cracks widen, tragedies like these seem more and more inevitable.”

Read more

‘Stores are selling Halloween stuff in August. Time has lost all meaning.’

Dave Schilling at The Guardian

Even “though I love Halloween, I’m mad because our glorious big-box overlords have declared, via careful inventory selection, that Halloween season has begun,” says Dave Schilling. It “feels like a violation of the natural order, a realignment of one of the few glorious constants left in the world.” At “most, Halloween celebrations should start in late September,” not a “month after Independence Day.” But if the “data says we want Halloween in the heat, then data shall be respected.”

Read more

‘In France, long summer breaks mean not just relaxation — but reinvention’

Elizabeth Svoboda at The Boston Globe

France’s “most chaotic stretch of summer is the one that most reveals the nation’s commitment to quiet and retreat,” as “vacationers luxuriate for long stretches of time uncluttered by appointments or prior commitments,” says Elizabeth Svoboda. “Month-long summer breaks, which the French call ‘congés annuels,’ are as sacrosanct as the Marseillaise national anthem, and their benefits go well beyond relaxation.” Americans “often assume that focus and persistence drive transformation,” but “opening up mental space is just as crucial.”

Read more

‘The myth of Eurasia’

Ayse Zarakol at Foreign Affairs

The “frontlines of the war in Ukraine run not just through floodplains and shattered towns but also through a more nebulous kind of terrain: the realm of civilization,” says Ayse Zarakol. From the “outset, Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast his invasion as part of a cultural struggle, a view shared by some of his adversaries on the Western side.” But it is “misguided to believe that Putin acts as he does because he follows in the footsteps of Eurasian emperors.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-gary-indiana-halloween-france-vacation-russia bXx8TB728kGxB5fsuyTkvJ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:25:43 +0000 Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:28:09 +0000 false false false

‘Two weeks. No power. Gary, Indiana, failed Black citizens.’

Kofi Mframa at USA Today

For “two weeks, the people of Gary, Indiana, have been forced to weather the late summer heat without electricity,” says Kofi Mframa. Gary “didn’t just experience a freak weather event.” There were “layers upon layers of systemic failures that left a vulnerable population to fend for themselves.” Marginalized groups “being failed by systems in the wake of a natural disaster is no strange occurrence in America, but as our country’s cracks widen, tragedies like these seem more and more inevitable.”

Read more

‘Stores are selling Halloween stuff in August. Time has lost all meaning.’

Dave Schilling at The Guardian

Even “though I love Halloween, I’m mad because our glorious big-box overlords have declared, via careful inventory selection, that Halloween season has begun,” says Dave Schilling. It “feels like a violation of the natural order, a realignment of one of the few glorious constants left in the world.” At “most, Halloween celebrations should start in late September,” not a “month after Independence Day.” But if the “data says we want Halloween in the heat, then data shall be respected.”

Read more

‘In France, long summer breaks mean not just relaxation — but reinvention’

Elizabeth Svoboda at The Boston Globe

France’s “most chaotic stretch of summer is the one that most reveals the nation’s commitment to quiet and retreat,” as “vacationers luxuriate for long stretches of time uncluttered by appointments or prior commitments,” says Elizabeth Svoboda. “Month-long summer breaks, which the French call ‘congés annuels,’ are as sacrosanct as the Marseillaise national anthem, and their benefits go well beyond relaxation.” Americans “often assume that focus and persistence drive transformation,” but “opening up mental space is just as crucial.”

Read more

‘The myth of Eurasia’

Ayse Zarakol at Foreign Affairs

The “frontlines of the war in Ukraine run not just through floodplains and shattered towns but also through a more nebulous kind of terrain: the realm of civilization,” says Ayse Zarakol. From the “outset, Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast his invasion as part of a cultural struggle, a view shared by some of his adversaries on the Western side.” But it is “misguided to believe that Putin acts as he does because he follows in the footsteps of Eurasian emperors.”

Read more

]]> ‘If only the MAGA “Nixonmaxxers” fully understood the 37th president’

Lee Huebner at The Washington Post

“‘Nixonmaxxing’ young conservatives seem intent on repairing the disgraced former president’s reputation,” considering him a “victim of Washington machinations,” says Lee Huebner. Nixon’s “pugilistic style” clearly appeals to the “populist right,” and his “antiestablishment sensibility is shared by Trump.” But there is a “fundamental difference between the two men.” MAGA “denies election results and works to undermine confidence in America’s electoral system,” while Nixon notably “refused to join Republicans who were urging him to deny election results and defy court rulings.”

Read more

‘An economic D-Day is coming for Iran’

Scott Bessent at the Financial Times

“President Donald Trump and the overwhelming might of our military have significantly dismantled Iran’s military capabilities and weakened its nuclear program,” says U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. Now begins the “single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.” The “regime’s final refuge lies in the self-deception of fearful nations that still believe accommodating aggression can secure a durable peace,” but “our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”

Read more

‘The gun lobby’s most cynical move yet’

Sari Horwitz at The Atlantic

A study by Stanford University researchers this year found that “after fatal school shootings, pro-gun political-action committees dramatically increased their contributions to their preferred U.S. House candidates in the districts where the shootings occurred,” says Sari Horwitz. “These shifts in spending” were observed “only when children were killed.” The study shows how “pro-gun PACs work to undermine anti-gun feelings in communities suffering from trauma” and is a “compelling reminder of how far the gun lobby will go.”

Read more

‘We stopped family separation once. We must stop this, too.’

Rosa DeLauro at Newsweek

The “second Trump administration is again targeting children as it pursues its radical anti-immigration agenda,” says Rosa DeLauro. The “contract between the federal government and the Acacia Center for Justice” recently “lapsed after the administration refused to extend the agreement,” leaving more than “20,000 migrant children” without “legal representation.” But depriving kids of “adequate legal services is not targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’” These “frightened” children “will be forced to stand before an immigration judge to plead their own case.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-nixon-gun-lobby-family-separation-bessent-iran yS9iVPiQor6hXSzTvHXs2P Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:50:27 +0000 Mon, 24 Aug 2026 21:24:07 +0000 false false false

‘If only the MAGA “Nixonmaxxers” fully understood the 37th president’

Lee Huebner at The Washington Post

“‘Nixonmaxxing’ young conservatives seem intent on repairing the disgraced former president’s reputation,” considering him a “victim of Washington machinations,” says Lee Huebner. Nixon’s “pugilistic style” clearly appeals to the “populist right,” and his “antiestablishment sensibility is shared by Trump.” But there is a “fundamental difference between the two men.” MAGA “denies election results and works to undermine confidence in America’s electoral system,” while Nixon notably “refused to join Republicans who were urging him to deny election results and defy court rulings.”

Read more

‘An economic D-Day is coming for Iran’

Scott Bessent at the Financial Times

“President Donald Trump and the overwhelming might of our military have significantly dismantled Iran’s military capabilities and weakened its nuclear program,” says U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. Now begins the “single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.” The “regime’s final refuge lies in the self-deception of fearful nations that still believe accommodating aggression can secure a durable peace,” but “our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”

Read more

‘The gun lobby’s most cynical move yet’

Sari Horwitz at The Atlantic

A study by Stanford University researchers this year found that “after fatal school shootings, pro-gun political-action committees dramatically increased their contributions to their preferred U.S. House candidates in the districts where the shootings occurred,” says Sari Horwitz. “These shifts in spending” were observed “only when children were killed.” The study shows how “pro-gun PACs work to undermine anti-gun feelings in communities suffering from trauma” and is a “compelling reminder of how far the gun lobby will go.”

Read more

‘We stopped family separation once. We must stop this, too.’

Rosa DeLauro at Newsweek

The “second Trump administration is again targeting children as it pursues its radical anti-immigration agenda,” says Rosa DeLauro. The “contract between the federal government and the Acacia Center for Justice” recently “lapsed after the administration refused to extend the agreement,” leaving more than “20,000 migrant children” without “legal representation.” But depriving kids of “adequate legal services is not targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’” These “frightened” children “will be forced to stand before an immigration judge to plead their own case.”

Read more

]]> ‘Baseball labor talks may look like a battle among millionaires, but it’s really about billionaires vs. peons’

Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times

“Is any labor dispute today caricatured more than the contract negotiations between Major League Baseball owners and their players?” says Michael Hiltzik. The “idea that the fans are clamoring to cancel the 2027 season” for a “rule change that would put more money in billionaires’ pockets doesn’t strike me as remotely plausible.” The “trope that the parties contesting the contract renewal are all millionaires battling over the same pie and sticking the fans with the cost” should be “put in context.”

Read more

‘Five years on, Washington is failing Afghanistan again’

Priyali Sur and Hardin Lang at Foreign Policy

“Five years ago this month, Kabul fell to the Taliban,” and the “images from that week still define how many Americans think about Afghanistan,” say Priyali Sur and Hardin Lang. In the “following years, Washington has found new, quieter ways to fail Afghans,” and “this time, the failure has a body count that the Trump administration has so far refused to acknowledge.” Examining the “impact of the aid cuts on the ground” paints a “disturbing picture of a collapsing system.”

Read more

‘Flock camera resistance is just the beginning. Let’s avoid a “1984” scenario.’

Farrah Hassen at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Government surveillance “isn’t new, but new wide-ranging technologies that can detect our faces and track our movements are making it ubiquitous,” says Farrah Hassen. While the “tools have changed, the purpose remains the same: to chill independent thought, free speech and dissent, bringing our country closer to the events in George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘1984.’” Tech like “Flock cameras has brought the issue into communities across the country” and “led to wrongful arrests, profiling and countless other abuses.”

Read more

‘The Muttur massacre in Sri Lanka remains, 20 years later, a prime example of impunity for attacks on humanitarians’

Hector Sharp and Lily Sparks at Le Monde

“Twenty years ago, on August 4, 2006, a team of 17 humanitarians working for Action Against Hunger in Muttur, Sri Lanka, were forced to kneel, before being shot in the back of the head,” say Hector Sharp and Lily Sparks. The massacre “became emblematic of the collapse of humanitarian protection.” It “remains a prime example of impunity: a defining failure of justice which is impossible to separate from the increase in attacks on humanitarians around the world.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-baseball-sports-afghanistan-flock-sri-lanka aevePHfpxesiLUrCzbtgKk Fri, 21 Aug 2026 16:38:01 +0000 Fri, 21 Aug 2026 16:41:20 +0000 false false false

‘Baseball labor talks may look like a battle among millionaires, but it’s really about billionaires vs. peons’

Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times

“Is any labor dispute today caricatured more than the contract negotiations between Major League Baseball owners and their players?” says Michael Hiltzik. The “idea that the fans are clamoring to cancel the 2027 season” for a “rule change that would put more money in billionaires’ pockets doesn’t strike me as remotely plausible.” The “trope that the parties contesting the contract renewal are all millionaires battling over the same pie and sticking the fans with the cost” should be “put in context.”

Read more

‘Five years on, Washington is failing Afghanistan again’

Priyali Sur and Hardin Lang at Foreign Policy

“Five years ago this month, Kabul fell to the Taliban,” and the “images from that week still define how many Americans think about Afghanistan,” say Priyali Sur and Hardin Lang. In the “following years, Washington has found new, quieter ways to fail Afghans,” and “this time, the failure has a body count that the Trump administration has so far refused to acknowledge.” Examining the “impact of the aid cuts on the ground” paints a “disturbing picture of a collapsing system.”

Read more

‘Flock camera resistance is just the beginning. Let’s avoid a “1984” scenario.’

Farrah Hassen at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Government surveillance “isn’t new, but new wide-ranging technologies that can detect our faces and track our movements are making it ubiquitous,” says Farrah Hassen. While the “tools have changed, the purpose remains the same: to chill independent thought, free speech and dissent, bringing our country closer to the events in George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘1984.’” Tech like “Flock cameras has brought the issue into communities across the country” and “led to wrongful arrests, profiling and countless other abuses.”

Read more

‘The Muttur massacre in Sri Lanka remains, 20 years later, a prime example of impunity for attacks on humanitarians’

Hector Sharp and Lily Sparks at Le Monde

“Twenty years ago, on August 4, 2006, a team of 17 humanitarians working for Action Against Hunger in Muttur, Sri Lanka, were forced to kneel, before being shot in the back of the head,” say Hector Sharp and Lily Sparks. The massacre “became emblematic of the collapse of humanitarian protection.” It “remains a prime example of impunity: a defining failure of justice which is impossible to separate from the increase in attacks on humanitarians around the world.”

Read more

]]> ‘After honeymooners crash in a helicopter, tourist choppers give us pause’

Chicago Tribune editorial board

Helicopters are often “vital tools,” and “there are many diligent, safety-conscious operators of helicopters that serve tourists,” says the Chicago Tribune editorial board. But recent crashes are “enough to give us pause about getting on one, especially if there is another choice of transportation to a popular destination.” It’s a “timely reminder there are lots of ways in these final weeks of summer of making it to a secluded vacation place: by boat, car, minibus, train or even a sturdier plane.”

Read more

‘Death stalks the Irish pub’

Jude Webber at the Financial Times

Death is “revered in Ireland more than it is feared — unless it’s the pub that’s dying,” says Jude Webber. From a “peak of more than 8,600 in 2005, the number of public houses has shrunk by a quarter in two decades,” and some fear a “terminal decline of one of Ireland’s best-loved institutions, especially in rural areas.” The “slow extinction of the Irish pub itself, with its cosy snugs, live music and warm welcome, is cause for increasing alarm.”

Read more

‘Humanitarianism is not collapsing. It is being traded and compromised.’

Amitabh Behar at Al Jazeera

As we “mark World Humanitarian Day, we must reflect on the state of humanitarianism,” says Amitabh Behar. Humanitarianism “has always been framed upon the collective assumption that there are lines that should never be crossed.” For a “generation, we had binding international agreements that treated the act of protecting a child in need of food or a medic treating the sick and wounded as a fundamental legal right,” but “today, the consensus and meaning behind these laws are gone.”

Read more

‘A fake poll made real news. What does that say about political polling?’

Ren LaForme, Angela Fu, Amaris Castillo and Phoenix Chapital at the Poynter Institute

Polling “has always presented journalists with a tricky proposition,” say Ren LaForme, Angela Fu, Amaris Castillo and Phoenix Chapital. There is “something irresistible about them,” but “polls are estimates, not predictions.” Their “usefulness depends heavily on who conducted them, who they surveyed and how.” As a fake poll by “Median Strategies demonstrated, the appearance of a methodology, a sample size and a margin of error can make invented numbers look a lot like real ones.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-helicopters-irish-pub-humanitarianism-polling YPNU7dX8wbFrt5Tx3j4XJe Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:58:34 +0000 false false false

‘After honeymooners crash in a helicopter, tourist choppers give us pause’

Chicago Tribune editorial board

Helicopters are often “vital tools,” and “there are many diligent, safety-conscious operators of helicopters that serve tourists,” says the Chicago Tribune editorial board. But recent crashes are “enough to give us pause about getting on one, especially if there is another choice of transportation to a popular destination.” It’s a “timely reminder there are lots of ways in these final weeks of summer of making it to a secluded vacation place: by boat, car, minibus, train or even a sturdier plane.”

Read more

‘Death stalks the Irish pub’

Jude Webber at the Financial Times

Death is “revered in Ireland more than it is feared — unless it’s the pub that’s dying,” says Jude Webber. From a “peak of more than 8,600 in 2005, the number of public houses has shrunk by a quarter in two decades,” and some fear a “terminal decline of one of Ireland’s best-loved institutions, especially in rural areas.” The “slow extinction of the Irish pub itself, with its cosy snugs, live music and warm welcome, is cause for increasing alarm.”

Read more

‘Humanitarianism is not collapsing. It is being traded and compromised.’

Amitabh Behar at Al Jazeera

As we “mark World Humanitarian Day, we must reflect on the state of humanitarianism,” says Amitabh Behar. Humanitarianism “has always been framed upon the collective assumption that there are lines that should never be crossed.” For a “generation, we had binding international agreements that treated the act of protecting a child in need of food or a medic treating the sick and wounded as a fundamental legal right,” but “today, the consensus and meaning behind these laws are gone.”

Read more

‘A fake poll made real news. What does that say about political polling?’

Ren LaForme, Angela Fu, Amaris Castillo and Phoenix Chapital at the Poynter Institute

Polling “has always presented journalists with a tricky proposition,” say Ren LaForme, Angela Fu, Amaris Castillo and Phoenix Chapital. There is “something irresistible about them,” but “polls are estimates, not predictions.” Their “usefulness depends heavily on who conducted them, who they surveyed and how.” As a fake poll by “Median Strategies demonstrated, the appearance of a methodology, a sample size and a margin of error can make invented numbers look a lot like real ones.”

Read more

]]> ‘I grew up watching Hayden Panettiere. Her death is a reckoning.’

Sara Pequeño at USA Today

The “late-night Aug. 16 notification that Hayden Panettiere died took my breath away,” says Sara Pequeño. Every “so often, a celebrity’s death will feel like an exposed nerve,” and “millennials and Gen Z are still getting used to that feeling.” In the “last years of her life, Panettiere was talking about serious topics that many young women can empathize with.” Hers is “not simply a cautionary tale — it is also a story about the importance of speaking your truth.”

Read more

‘By disparaging 2020 protests as “Woke 1,” liberals are following the right wing’s lead’

Andre Gee at The Guardian

This month has “brought us a referendum on ‘Woke 1’ — a term that reductively brands 2020’s social justice movement — as prominent liberal voices reflect on that time period with disappointing hindsight,” says Andre Gee. “Woke” has “long shifted from Black America’s prideful adjective to a mocking noun that has been weaponized to ridicule Black liberation movements.” Progressive liberals “now adopting that dismissive language while placing confines on the movement for Black lives is damning.”

Read more

‘You cannot rebuild a country with people who are shattered’

Lilia Yapparova at The Boston Globe

“Stigma around mental health care still runs deep in Ukraine,” says Lilia Yapparova. This happens “even though the scale of trauma in Ukraine is extraordinary.” If the nation’s “mental health crisis goes untreated, overlooked grief and loss could become indelible parts of Ukraine’s social fabric, with cascading effects on future generations.” It is “not only soldiers who continue to live in a nightmare of ongoing trauma,” but there is “no systematic, streamlined approach to mental health support in Ukraine.”

Read more

‘Pilots and flight attendants face a real cancer risk. Frequent fliers shouldn’t panic.’

Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena at Time

There’s a “particular unease that comes from seeing that an ordinary part of life has been linked to cancer,” as “pilots and flight attendants die of radiation-related cancers at higher rates than workers in over 500 occupations,” say Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena. The “next time a flight attendant hands you a coffee at 30,000 feet, there’s no need to fret over the tiny radiation dose,” but “do consider the doses they take on, day after day.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-hayden-panettiere-woke-ukraine-health-aviation YrhoVbnd83oiQs7RMcu3e3 Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:45:22 +0000 Wed, 19 Aug 2026 20:04:33 +0000 false false false

‘I grew up watching Hayden Panettiere. Her death is a reckoning.’

Sara Pequeño at USA Today

The “late-night Aug. 16 notification that Hayden Panettiere died took my breath away,” says Sara Pequeño. Every “so often, a celebrity’s death will feel like an exposed nerve,” and “millennials and Gen Z are still getting used to that feeling.” In the “last years of her life, Panettiere was talking about serious topics that many young women can empathize with.” Hers is “not simply a cautionary tale — it is also a story about the importance of speaking your truth.”

Read more

‘By disparaging 2020 protests as “Woke 1,” liberals are following the right wing’s lead’

Andre Gee at The Guardian

This month has “brought us a referendum on ‘Woke 1’ — a term that reductively brands 2020’s social justice movement — as prominent liberal voices reflect on that time period with disappointing hindsight,” says Andre Gee. “Woke” has “long shifted from Black America’s prideful adjective to a mocking noun that has been weaponized to ridicule Black liberation movements.” Progressive liberals “now adopting that dismissive language while placing confines on the movement for Black lives is damning.”

Read more

‘You cannot rebuild a country with people who are shattered’

Lilia Yapparova at The Boston Globe

“Stigma around mental health care still runs deep in Ukraine,” says Lilia Yapparova. This happens “even though the scale of trauma in Ukraine is extraordinary.” If the nation’s “mental health crisis goes untreated, overlooked grief and loss could become indelible parts of Ukraine’s social fabric, with cascading effects on future generations.” It is “not only soldiers who continue to live in a nightmare of ongoing trauma,” but there is “no systematic, streamlined approach to mental health support in Ukraine.”

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‘Pilots and flight attendants face a real cancer risk. Frequent fliers shouldn’t panic.’

Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena at Time

There’s a “particular unease that comes from seeing that an ordinary part of life has been linked to cancer,” as “pilots and flight attendants die of radiation-related cancers at higher rates than workers in over 500 occupations,” say Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena. The “next time a flight attendant hands you a coffee at 30,000 feet, there’s no need to fret over the tiny radiation dose,” but “do consider the doses they take on, day after day.”

Read more

]]> ‘LinkedIn users are rewriting the past to land their next jobs’

Beth Kowitt at Bloomberg

LinkedIn “has inadvertently become a treasure trove for economists studying the modern labor market,” says Beth Kowitt. New research “has uncovered a problem with treating LinkedIn as a historical record: users keep mucking up the data.” People “have been polishing their resumes for as long as resumes have existed,” but “today when workers rewrite their own career histories, they’re also altering the public record and our understanding of the labor market.” The “result is a kind of arms race.”

Read more

‘Debbie Wasserman Schultz running in a Black district is brought to you by the Supreme Court — and the GOP’

Andra Gillespie at MS NOW

After the Supreme Court “gave Florida Republicans permission to redraw district lines to benefit their party, the biggest news is the decision by Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a white woman, to run in the state’s only plurality-Black district,” says Andra Gillespie. Her “candidacy there highlights the tensions between descriptive and substantive representation and the strategic risks that emerge when a large field of candidates run for the same seat.” But “she could still win with a plurality.”

Read more

‘The age of big-spending Republicans is here’

Merrill Matthews at The Hill

It “may be hard for the Gen Z crowd to accept, but there was a time when Republicans in Congress believed in fiscal responsibility — restraining government spending,” says Merrill Matthews. Now “all most Gen Zers have ever known is big-spending Republicans.” The GOP “used to be serious about controlling federal spending, but that was before Trump.” These party members “may soon find voters and the economy demanding they return to their conservative roots.”

Read more

‘What my dad’s generation of engineers can teach the AI industry’

Len Khodorkovsky at Newsweek

“Half of companies rolled out an AI agent that passed internal testing but still failed once real customers began using it,” and the “gap isn’t a failure of engineering. It’s a permanent feature of it,” says Len Khodorkovsky. It’s the “everyday cost of manufacturing at scale.” A “model that aces its benchmarks but fails in the real world is like a tolerance that only looks good on paper,” and “every factory learned a long time ago that reality humbles perfect designs.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-linkedin-jobs-economy-democrats-ai-tech kNXxjUyAe32FfjivgiYMVU Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:19:25 +0000 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:38:40 +0000 false false false

‘LinkedIn users are rewriting the past to land their next jobs’

Beth Kowitt at Bloomberg

LinkedIn “has inadvertently become a treasure trove for economists studying the modern labor market,” says Beth Kowitt. New research “has uncovered a problem with treating LinkedIn as a historical record: users keep mucking up the data.” People “have been polishing their resumes for as long as resumes have existed,” but “today when workers rewrite their own career histories, they’re also altering the public record and our understanding of the labor market.” The “result is a kind of arms race.”

Read more

‘Debbie Wasserman Schultz running in a Black district is brought to you by the Supreme Court — and the GOP’

Andra Gillespie at MS NOW

After the Supreme Court “gave Florida Republicans permission to redraw district lines to benefit their party, the biggest news is the decision by Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a white woman, to run in the state’s only plurality-Black district,” says Andra Gillespie. Her “candidacy there highlights the tensions between descriptive and substantive representation and the strategic risks that emerge when a large field of candidates run for the same seat.” But “she could still win with a plurality.”

Read more

‘The age of big-spending Republicans is here’

Merrill Matthews at The Hill

It “may be hard for the Gen Z crowd to accept, but there was a time when Republicans in Congress believed in fiscal responsibility — restraining government spending,” says Merrill Matthews. Now “all most Gen Zers have ever known is big-spending Republicans.” The GOP “used to be serious about controlling federal spending, but that was before Trump.” These party members “may soon find voters and the economy demanding they return to their conservative roots.”

Read more

‘What my dad’s generation of engineers can teach the AI industry’

Len Khodorkovsky at Newsweek

“Half of companies rolled out an AI agent that passed internal testing but still failed once real customers began using it,” and the “gap isn’t a failure of engineering. It’s a permanent feature of it,” says Len Khodorkovsky. It’s the “everyday cost of manufacturing at scale.” A “model that aces its benchmarks but fails in the real world is like a tolerance that only looks good on paper,” and “every factory learned a long time ago that reality humbles perfect designs.”

Read more

]]> ‘Subtraction isn’t the way out of the Colorado River crisis’

Jim Madaffer at The Washington Post

The Colorado River Compact of 1922 is “designed to divide a fixed supply of water, but there’s a problem: The river no longer offers one,” says Jim Madaffer. The “21st century must create water for the region,” but the “existing policies, designed as they were for another era, don’t create anything,” so “commercialization of water innovation is the path to giving Lower Basin states and their residents stable and full water supplies.”

Read more

‘Black Americans are reviving an ancient Nigerian apprenticeship model to build wealth’

Ibe Imo at The Philadelphia Inquirer

There is a “growing, informal network” of apprentice programs using the Nigerian “Nwa Boy model’s core promise: a credentialed path from labor to ownership, built on relationships and trust rather than credit scores or venture capital,” says Ibe Imo. As “race-conscious funding efforts designed to level the playing field for African Americans are dismantled, that promise is drawing new attention from investors, workforce officials and Black entrepreneurs looking for an alternative route to generational wealth.”

Read more

‘Why Gov. Newsom should commute every death sentence in California before he leaves office’

Nadia Daar at the San Francisco Chronicle

“Shockingly, 25% of those on death row in the U.S. are sitting in California prisons,” and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “should seize a historic opportunity to move California closer to ending the death penalty by commuting all of the death sentences in the state,” says Nadia Daar. Newsom’s “promise to pause executions is only good until he leaves office in 2027.” What he “does next will determine whether California merely delayed executions or truly ended them.”

Read more

‘Colleges shouldn’t give up on letter grades’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

Some colleges are “experimenting with ‘ungrading,’ where students agree to contractual terms for a particular letter grade or are evaluated in more qualitative ways,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. These “experiments show a genuine effort on the part of colleges to grapple with a broken grading system, but dropping letter grades altogether is not the answer.” A “transcript filled with broad pass marks can’t communicate whether a student produced exceptional work or just barely got by.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-colorado-river-death-penalty-african-americans-colleges awCEanVA28k7SqbMZid827 Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:56:41 +0000 Mon, 17 Aug 2026 23:40:19 +0000 false false false

‘Subtraction isn’t the way out of the Colorado River crisis’

Jim Madaffer at The Washington Post

The Colorado River Compact of 1922 is “designed to divide a fixed supply of water, but there’s a problem: The river no longer offers one,” says Jim Madaffer. The “21st century must create water for the region,” but the “existing policies, designed as they were for another era, don’t create anything,” so “commercialization of water innovation is the path to giving Lower Basin states and their residents stable and full water supplies.”

Read more

‘Black Americans are reviving an ancient Nigerian apprenticeship model to build wealth’

Ibe Imo at The Philadelphia Inquirer

There is a “growing, informal network” of apprentice programs using the Nigerian “Nwa Boy model’s core promise: a credentialed path from labor to ownership, built on relationships and trust rather than credit scores or venture capital,” says Ibe Imo. As “race-conscious funding efforts designed to level the playing field for African Americans are dismantled, that promise is drawing new attention from investors, workforce officials and Black entrepreneurs looking for an alternative route to generational wealth.”

Read more

‘Why Gov. Newsom should commute every death sentence in California before he leaves office’

Nadia Daar at the San Francisco Chronicle

“Shockingly, 25% of those on death row in the U.S. are sitting in California prisons,” and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “should seize a historic opportunity to move California closer to ending the death penalty by commuting all of the death sentences in the state,” says Nadia Daar. Newsom’s “promise to pause executions is only good until he leaves office in 2027.” What he “does next will determine whether California merely delayed executions or truly ended them.”

Read more

‘Colleges shouldn’t give up on letter grades’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

Some colleges are “experimenting with ‘ungrading,’ where students agree to contractual terms for a particular letter grade or are evaluated in more qualitative ways,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. These “experiments show a genuine effort on the part of colleges to grapple with a broken grading system, but dropping letter grades altogether is not the answer.” A “transcript filled with broad pass marks can’t communicate whether a student produced exceptional work or just barely got by.”

Read more

]]> ‘What’s the value of an hour?’

Joshua Rothman at The New Yorker

Government is “only one participant in a much larger conspiracy to waste our time,” says Joshua Rothman, as “many conveniences also have hidden time-wasting downsides.” All “around us, systems calculate, markets churn and clever people find ways to monetize seemingly everything,” but “hours are thrown away and used up randomly,” as “time, our scarcest resource, feels beyond our reckoning.” People “grapple with time, of course, finding ways to domesticate it,” and “we’re outrageously suggestible when it comes to our temporal attitudes.”

Read more

‘We’re paying for climate disasters instead of preventing them’

Sienna Shankel at Newsweek

Home insurance “has become one of the defining economic issues of 2026, yet our response remains dangerously small,” says Sienna Shankel. Americans “argue over premiums, subsidies and regulations while ignoring the structural failure driving them.” Until “that changes, households will pay more.” A “mistake is believing that higher premiums are the crisis,” as “they are only symptoms.” The “real problem is that every climate disaster now triggers an economic chain reaction that extends far beyond damaged buildings.”

Read more

‘Black liberation requires investment’

Reginald Thomas Brown at The Progressive

By “no coincidence, Black August and Black Philanthropy Month are observed at the same time,” as “both are rooted in a simple truth: Our liberation is never granted; it is built, protected and sustained,” says Reginald Thomas Brown. The “Black liberation movement commemorated by Black August gave us the blueprint for organizing,” while Black Philanthropy Month underscores what communities have always understood — that collective action, from mutual aid networks to civil rights campaigns, is our greatest strength.”

Read more

‘How to squander a superpower’s credibility’

Fareed Zakaria at Foreign Policy

Saudi Arabia and Turkey “pledged to go to war in each other’s defense,” even as they’ve “been bitter regional rivals,” says Fareed Zakaria. What “brought them together? U.S. President Donald Trump — or rather the two countries’ diminishing faith in him and his word.” The “Iran war has been a master class in how to squander credibility.” Trump’s “word is as solid with his counterparts abroad as it was with his bankers in New York.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-time-climate-insurance-black-united-states QAuB65dApniq8FTJF6JtTN Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:33:49 +0000 false false false

‘What’s the value of an hour?’

Joshua Rothman at The New Yorker

Government is “only one participant in a much larger conspiracy to waste our time,” says Joshua Rothman, as “many conveniences also have hidden time-wasting downsides.” All “around us, systems calculate, markets churn and clever people find ways to monetize seemingly everything,” but “hours are thrown away and used up randomly,” as “time, our scarcest resource, feels beyond our reckoning.” People “grapple with time, of course, finding ways to domesticate it,” and “we’re outrageously suggestible when it comes to our temporal attitudes.”

Read more

‘We’re paying for climate disasters instead of preventing them’

Sienna Shankel at Newsweek

Home insurance “has become one of the defining economic issues of 2026, yet our response remains dangerously small,” says Sienna Shankel. Americans “argue over premiums, subsidies and regulations while ignoring the structural failure driving them.” Until “that changes, households will pay more.” A “mistake is believing that higher premiums are the crisis,” as “they are only symptoms.” The “real problem is that every climate disaster now triggers an economic chain reaction that extends far beyond damaged buildings.”

Read more

‘Black liberation requires investment’

Reginald Thomas Brown at The Progressive

By “no coincidence, Black August and Black Philanthropy Month are observed at the same time,” as “both are rooted in a simple truth: Our liberation is never granted; it is built, protected and sustained,” says Reginald Thomas Brown. The “Black liberation movement commemorated by Black August gave us the blueprint for organizing,” while Black Philanthropy Month underscores what communities have always understood — that collective action, from mutual aid networks to civil rights campaigns, is our greatest strength.”

Read more

‘How to squander a superpower’s credibility’

Fareed Zakaria at Foreign Policy

Saudi Arabia and Turkey “pledged to go to war in each other’s defense,” even as they’ve “been bitter regional rivals,” says Fareed Zakaria. What “brought them together? U.S. President Donald Trump — or rather the two countries’ diminishing faith in him and his word.” The “Iran war has been a master class in how to squander credibility.” Trump’s “word is as solid with his counterparts abroad as it was with his bankers in New York.”

Read more

]]> ‘Syria’s leaders need to prove they can be trusted’

Ilan Berman at The Washington Post

The United States’ “rehabilitation of Syria has proceeded at remarkable speed,” but it is “becoming increasingly clear that, at least at the moment, Washington is making its bet based more on hope than hard evidence,” says Ilan Berman. The “ideological makeup of the country’s new rulers has not changed nearly as much as Western officials might wish to believe” and “reflect an officially sanctioned effort to shape Syria’s next generation according to a radical, rejectionist worldview.”

Read more

‘Critics can no longer claim ESPN is “woke”’

Michael McCarthy at Front Office Sports

If “you want proof the ‘woke’ era at ESPN is over, all you had to do was watch President Donald Trump’s inaugural Freedom 250 Patriot Games,” says Michael McCarthy. The “happy, smiling scene between ESPN/Disney power players and the second Trump administration was a far cry from some of the media giant’s previous tense interactions with ‘The Donald.’” ESPN “might not want to enlist in the culture wars anymore, but the culture wars will draft them anyway.”

Read more

‘The US is now using the “terrorist” label to interfere in Brazil’s election’

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia at Al Jazeera

In “designating Brazil’s two largest criminal organizations” as terrorist groups, the U.S. “has asserted its own definition of Brazil’s security threats, with consequences that reach far beyond law enforcement,” says Raphael Tsavkko Garcia. This “says far more about politics than security.” The “designation reflects a dangerous convergence between Washington’s longstanding interventionist instincts in Latin America, echoing memories from the U.S.-sponsored dictatorship that lasted from 1964 until 1985, and the interests of Brazil’s far right.”

Read more

‘How AI poses a threat to journalism, already weakened by 20 years of digital upheaval’

Aude Dassonville at Le Monde

For the “media, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence has proven to be an earthquake, profoundly shaking journalistic practices and relationships with readers, along with the economic models of newspapers, magazines, television channels and news websites,” says Aude Dassonville. How “can organizations continue to exist if, on top of having their content scraped by AI, readers drop and advertising revenue is siphoned off?” A “worrying trend is that, quite often, chatbot users are confident with answers generated by AI.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-syria-espn-sports-brazil-ai-news hzkNTCJX8e7ksUGr72pa4D Thu, 13 Aug 2026 16:27:21 +0000 false false false

‘Syria’s leaders need to prove they can be trusted’

Ilan Berman at The Washington Post

The United States’ “rehabilitation of Syria has proceeded at remarkable speed,” but it is “becoming increasingly clear that, at least at the moment, Washington is making its bet based more on hope than hard evidence,” says Ilan Berman. The “ideological makeup of the country’s new rulers has not changed nearly as much as Western officials might wish to believe” and “reflect an officially sanctioned effort to shape Syria’s next generation according to a radical, rejectionist worldview.”

Read more

‘Critics can no longer claim ESPN is “woke”’

Michael McCarthy at Front Office Sports

If “you want proof the ‘woke’ era at ESPN is over, all you had to do was watch President Donald Trump’s inaugural Freedom 250 Patriot Games,” says Michael McCarthy. The “happy, smiling scene between ESPN/Disney power players and the second Trump administration was a far cry from some of the media giant’s previous tense interactions with ‘The Donald.’” ESPN “might not want to enlist in the culture wars anymore, but the culture wars will draft them anyway.”

Read more

‘The US is now using the “terrorist” label to interfere in Brazil’s election’

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia at Al Jazeera

In “designating Brazil’s two largest criminal organizations” as terrorist groups, the U.S. “has asserted its own definition of Brazil’s security threats, with consequences that reach far beyond law enforcement,” says Raphael Tsavkko Garcia. This “says far more about politics than security.” The “designation reflects a dangerous convergence between Washington’s longstanding interventionist instincts in Latin America, echoing memories from the U.S.-sponsored dictatorship that lasted from 1964 until 1985, and the interests of Brazil’s far right.”

Read more

‘How AI poses a threat to journalism, already weakened by 20 years of digital upheaval’

Aude Dassonville at Le Monde

For the “media, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence has proven to be an earthquake, profoundly shaking journalistic practices and relationships with readers, along with the economic models of newspapers, magazines, television channels and news websites,” says Aude Dassonville. How “can organizations continue to exist if, on top of having their content scraped by AI, readers drop and advertising revenue is siphoned off?” A “worrying trend is that, quite often, chatbot users are confident with answers generated by AI.”

Read more

]]> ‘Shopping is impossible’

Rachel Sugar at The Atlantic

With online shopping, the “problem is the overabundance of options” and “too much information, or too little information,” says Rachel Sugar. At “this point, the boundary between ‘shopping’ and ‘not shopping’ has all but collapsed.” There is “now a third state: ‘a little bit shopping,’” the “constant thrum of consumer opportunities that lead mostly to more consumer opportunities.” It is “both a genuine attempt at making a purchase, and a hobby that is infinitely expandable to fill any length of time.”

Read more

‘Why must a socialist also be woke?’

Janan Ganesh at the Financial Times

It is “natural to forget what a normie Karl Marx could be,” says Janan Ganesh. From the “beginning, it was possible to be a socialist, the socialist, and culturally middle-of-the-road.” It was “possible to believe in seizing the means of production without being avant-garde on matters of sex, race, crime or war,” but “that point has got lost over time.” The “hard left will always pair a conceivably popular economic program with a provably hated cultural one.”

Read more

‘The death toll of a mass shooting doesn’t end at the scene’

Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena at Time

When a “mass shooting tears through an American community, we count the dead,” say Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena. But the “damage doesn’t stop at the victims.” The impact that a “shooting spreads across the whole country cannot be seen the way we can see a wound,” but “we can see its footprints in the form of antidepressant prescriptions filled, in accidental gun deaths” and in “lives lost on the road,” as “decades of research show that stress and distraction make drivers more dangerous.”

Read more

‘Why fashion falls for fascists’

Ari Hoffman at UnHerd

A “Dorian Gray-like question comes to mind in the wake of the decision” by Anna Wintour to “devote the 2027 Met Gala to John Galliano, a designer hailed as a visionary who has also spewed baroque bigotry,” says Ari Hoffman. Beyond the “judgment of Galliano’s character — by all accounts, it’s troubled — lies a more difficult reckoning with fashion’s fascination with cruelty and fanaticism, which all too often has lain behind the glittering surfaces.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-shopping-online-socialism-mass-shooting-fashion exEDgrUqeVACFWBa8NYtoF Wed, 12 Aug 2026 17:56:54 +0000 Wed, 12 Aug 2026 18:02:37 +0000 false false false

‘Shopping is impossible’

Rachel Sugar at The Atlantic

With online shopping, the “problem is the overabundance of options” and “too much information, or too little information,” says Rachel Sugar. At “this point, the boundary between ‘shopping’ and ‘not shopping’ has all but collapsed.” There is “now a third state: ‘a little bit shopping,’” the “constant thrum of consumer opportunities that lead mostly to more consumer opportunities.” It is “both a genuine attempt at making a purchase, and a hobby that is infinitely expandable to fill any length of time.”

Read more

‘Why must a socialist also be woke?’

Janan Ganesh at the Financial Times

It is “natural to forget what a normie Karl Marx could be,” says Janan Ganesh. From the “beginning, it was possible to be a socialist, the socialist, and culturally middle-of-the-road.” It was “possible to believe in seizing the means of production without being avant-garde on matters of sex, race, crime or war,” but “that point has got lost over time.” The “hard left will always pair a conceivably popular economic program with a provably hated cultural one.”

Read more

‘The death toll of a mass shooting doesn’t end at the scene’

Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena at Time

When a “mass shooting tears through an American community, we count the dead,” say Vishal R. Patel, Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena. But the “damage doesn’t stop at the victims.” The impact that a “shooting spreads across the whole country cannot be seen the way we can see a wound,” but “we can see its footprints in the form of antidepressant prescriptions filled, in accidental gun deaths” and in “lives lost on the road,” as “decades of research show that stress and distraction make drivers more dangerous.”

Read more

‘Why fashion falls for fascists’

Ari Hoffman at UnHerd

A “Dorian Gray-like question comes to mind in the wake of the decision” by Anna Wintour to “devote the 2027 Met Gala to John Galliano, a designer hailed as a visionary who has also spewed baroque bigotry,” says Ari Hoffman. Beyond the “judgment of Galliano’s character — by all accounts, it’s troubled — lies a more difficult reckoning with fashion’s fascination with cruelty and fanaticism, which all too often has lain behind the glittering surfaces.”

Read more

]]> ‘Before more E15 reaches the pump, boaters deserve a real warning’

David Kennedy at The Hill

An E15 ethanol “blend, although approved for many cars and trucks, is not for boats,” and “using higher ethanol blends can damage fuel systems, create performance problems, increase safety risks and even void warranties,” says David Kennedy. “Clearer labeling at the pump could have saved me that expense and time lost on the water,” and it is a “warning for policymakers to inform their constituents of potential risks to their boats as E15 becomes more widely available.”

Read more

‘An HBCU has banned durags and bonnets. That reinforces anti-Blackness.’

A.D. Carson at The Guardian

Tuskegee University’s bonnet and durag ban “has produced polarized responses,” says A.D. Carson. The “policy is ultimately rooted in politics of respectability.” One of the “damaging implications of such a dress code is the reinforcement of anti-Black standards that have been externally and internally imposed on Black people in the United States for decades and have never equaled success or safety.” Debates “about ‘proper attire’ have polarized the country throughout its history” and are “tied to violence.”

Read more

‘How science fiction hijacked our political imagination’

David Albertson and Jason Blakely at The Boston Globe

The “most extravagant sci-fi utopians today are also the richest men on the planet,” say David Albertson and Jason Blakely. But it is “not only the billionaires and Marxists who dream of sci-fi abundance.” It is “high time to dispense with outdated nostrums that assume utopianism is either silly or dangerous.” Utopianism “ought to be considered a plausible politics, alongside progressivism, libertarianism and neoliberal realism.” But the “contemporary menu of futuristic imaginings offers rather limited and bizarre fare.”

Read more

‘America’s manufacturing future starts with industrial hemp’

David M. Klein at Newsweek

America is “making a costly mistake by treating industrial hemp as just another crop,” says David M. Klein. It is an “industrial material that can strengthen manufacturing, create jobs, reduce dependence on imported raw materials and help build more resilient supply chains.” If Americans “keep limiting hemp to an agricultural debate, we will hand another major manufacturing opportunity to other countries.” If “we build the industries that process and manufacture hemp-based products here at home, America wins.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-e15-fuel-hbcu-sci-fi-hemp unupSQuYexAXULLTjZxbBP Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:20:28 +0000 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 19:24:56 +0000 false false false

‘Before more E15 reaches the pump, boaters deserve a real warning’

David Kennedy at The Hill

An E15 ethanol “blend, although approved for many cars and trucks, is not for boats,” and “using higher ethanol blends can damage fuel systems, create performance problems, increase safety risks and even void warranties,” says David Kennedy. “Clearer labeling at the pump could have saved me that expense and time lost on the water,” and it is a “warning for policymakers to inform their constituents of potential risks to their boats as E15 becomes more widely available.”

Read more

‘An HBCU has banned durags and bonnets. That reinforces anti-Blackness.’

A.D. Carson at The Guardian

Tuskegee University’s bonnet and durag ban “has produced polarized responses,” says A.D. Carson. The “policy is ultimately rooted in politics of respectability.” One of the “damaging implications of such a dress code is the reinforcement of anti-Black standards that have been externally and internally imposed on Black people in the United States for decades and have never equaled success or safety.” Debates “about ‘proper attire’ have polarized the country throughout its history” and are “tied to violence.”

Read more

‘How science fiction hijacked our political imagination’

David Albertson and Jason Blakely at The Boston Globe

The “most extravagant sci-fi utopians today are also the richest men on the planet,” say David Albertson and Jason Blakely. But it is “not only the billionaires and Marxists who dream of sci-fi abundance.” It is “high time to dispense with outdated nostrums that assume utopianism is either silly or dangerous.” Utopianism “ought to be considered a plausible politics, alongside progressivism, libertarianism and neoliberal realism.” But the “contemporary menu of futuristic imaginings offers rather limited and bizarre fare.”

Read more

‘America’s manufacturing future starts with industrial hemp’

David M. Klein at Newsweek

America is “making a costly mistake by treating industrial hemp as just another crop,” says David M. Klein. It is an “industrial material that can strengthen manufacturing, create jobs, reduce dependence on imported raw materials and help build more resilient supply chains.” If Americans “keep limiting hemp to an agricultural debate, we will hand another major manufacturing opportunity to other countries.” If “we build the industries that process and manufacture hemp-based products here at home, America wins.”

Read more

]]> ‘Why are we just watching America become a surveillance state?’

Sara Pequeño at USA Today

There is a “larger issue of mass surveillance becoming mainstream,” says Sara Pequeño. Flock cameras have “recently been in the news for what happens when police officers misuse the technology,” but “faceless corporations aren’t the only ones policing our behavior through mass surveillance.” Americans are “also creating the panopticon among ourselves.” People “can opt out of a culture that calls on us to record our fellow man if we ourselves would not like to be documented.”

Read more

‘What should a 21st-century central bank look like?’

Daniel Moss at Bloomberg

Central banks “have done a sterling job in responding to swings in prices and employment, and severe gyrations in capital markets,” says Daniel Moss. Still, they “haven’t always gotten everything right.” Then “there’s the perceived overreach.” Politicians “might insist that they support central bank independence but now want to peel back what policymakers can do, how they can do it and when they can do it.” The “case for freedom to implement policy has never been stronger.”

Read more

‘A “Free Palestine” T-shirt at a Holocaust memorial is no contradiction’

Gideon Levy at Haaretz

“Teenagers from an international anti-fascist youth camp visited Austria’s Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial last week,” and a “number of them wore T-shirts with slogans calling for the liberation of Palestine,” says Gideon Levy. The “notion that there is no better place than the ruins of a concentration camp to fight for the liberation of 2 million human beings who are currently incarcerated in the Gaza Strip is beyond the grasp of Israelis.” The “call to free Palestine is not antisemitic.”

Read more

‘Should an insurer or a doctor decide where your care takes place?’

Edmund Pribitkin at The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Every day, physicians, patients and the families who care for them make hundreds of decisions together about where and how care should be delivered,” says Edmund Pribitkin. “Increasingly, however, these collective judgments are being second-guessed — and often overruled — by large insurance companies through policies that prioritize administrative convenience and cost-shifting over clinical judgment.” Healthcare decisions “should be made by patients, their families and their care teams — not by insurance company policies.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-surveillance-camera-bank-holocaust-doctors 7zikBzvdBoH9VE64UXotHJ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 16:45:25 +0000 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 20:55:54 +0000 false false false

‘Why are we just watching America become a surveillance state?’

Sara Pequeño at USA Today

There is a “larger issue of mass surveillance becoming mainstream,” says Sara Pequeño. Flock cameras have “recently been in the news for what happens when police officers misuse the technology,” but “faceless corporations aren’t the only ones policing our behavior through mass surveillance.” Americans are “also creating the panopticon among ourselves.” People “can opt out of a culture that calls on us to record our fellow man if we ourselves would not like to be documented.”

Read more

‘What should a 21st-century central bank look like?’

Daniel Moss at Bloomberg

Central banks “have done a sterling job in responding to swings in prices and employment, and severe gyrations in capital markets,” says Daniel Moss. Still, they “haven’t always gotten everything right.” Then “there’s the perceived overreach.” Politicians “might insist that they support central bank independence but now want to peel back what policymakers can do, how they can do it and when they can do it.” The “case for freedom to implement policy has never been stronger.”

Read more

‘A “Free Palestine” T-shirt at a Holocaust memorial is no contradiction’

Gideon Levy at Haaretz

“Teenagers from an international anti-fascist youth camp visited Austria’s Mauthausen Concentration Camp Memorial last week,” and a “number of them wore T-shirts with slogans calling for the liberation of Palestine,” says Gideon Levy. The “notion that there is no better place than the ruins of a concentration camp to fight for the liberation of 2 million human beings who are currently incarcerated in the Gaza Strip is beyond the grasp of Israelis.” The “call to free Palestine is not antisemitic.”

Read more

‘Should an insurer or a doctor decide where your care takes place?’

Edmund Pribitkin at The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Every day, physicians, patients and the families who care for them make hundreds of decisions together about where and how care should be delivered,” says Edmund Pribitkin. “Increasingly, however, these collective judgments are being second-guessed — and often overruled — by large insurance companies through policies that prioritize administrative convenience and cost-shifting over clinical judgment.” Healthcare decisions “should be made by patients, their families and their care teams — not by insurance company policies.”

Read more

]]> ‘My laundromat accepts Apple Pay. Why won’t they take my cash?’

Mary Anna Mancuso at the Miami Herald

Cash “isn’t going out of circulation; it’s disappearing from everyday transactions,” says Mary Anna Mancuso. Businesses “prefer electronic payments” because it “reduces the risk of robbery, digital transactions go into the bank almost immediately and the bookkeeping is simpler.” But it is “worth asking what we lose when convenience becomes the only option.” A “modern payment system should accommodate everyone — whether they choose to tap their phone, swipe a card or hand over a dollar bill.”

Read more

‘Ukraine has always been here — and always will be’

Lidia Pilecky at the Chicago Tribune

Ukraine’s “history tells the facts. We were here. We are here. And we will remain here,” says Lidia Pilecky. For “centuries, Russian rulers repeatedly tried to ban the Ukrainian language and suppress the very identity Putin claims never existed.” But “today, Ukrainians defend the universal principle that no nation should be destroyed because a more powerful neighbor claims it has no right to exist.” Ukraine’s “fight is also taking place in classrooms where children learn the truth.”

Read more

‘Cyclospora outbreaks will only get worse as climate chaos grows’

Amy Moas at Newsweek

This “has been one of the most dangerous summers on record, and experts have been warning about it for decades,” says Amy Moas regarding “two deaths linked to the outbreak of cyclospora.” It is “easier to associate loss of life with extreme weather when it’s tied to a singular event.” But “you can ‘contact-trace’ this now-fatal outbreak back to the ongoing climate crisis.” If “summer gets longer and warmer, we’ll see a longer, hotter mechanism for the parasite to thrive.”

Read more

‘Fancy sodas fall flat with me’

Brenda Cronin at The Wall Street Journal

Fancy sodas “come in winsome bottles or sleek cans and have ridiculous flavors like watermelon-dandelion or rosehip-jacaranda,” but “they taste like carbonated cough syrup with a Windex chaser,” says Brenda Cronin. People “should be reveling in the gourmet soda parade,” if “only the flavors didn’t sound like products from Bath & Body Works” or “taste like a mashup of SweeTARTS and Jolly Ranchers.” When “drinking feels more like penance than a party, I’ll do without.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-cash-money-ukraine-cyclosporiasis-soda 7SiFU5QCW6n7sR7kjDWGHZ Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:40:00 +0000 Fri, 07 Aug 2026 19:26:57 +0000 false false false

‘My laundromat accepts Apple Pay. Why won’t they take my cash?’

Mary Anna Mancuso at the Miami Herald

Cash “isn’t going out of circulation; it’s disappearing from everyday transactions,” says Mary Anna Mancuso. Businesses “prefer electronic payments” because it “reduces the risk of robbery, digital transactions go into the bank almost immediately and the bookkeeping is simpler.” But it is “worth asking what we lose when convenience becomes the only option.” A “modern payment system should accommodate everyone — whether they choose to tap their phone, swipe a card or hand over a dollar bill.”

Read more

‘Ukraine has always been here — and always will be’

Lidia Pilecky at the Chicago Tribune

Ukraine’s “history tells the facts. We were here. We are here. And we will remain here,” says Lidia Pilecky. For “centuries, Russian rulers repeatedly tried to ban the Ukrainian language and suppress the very identity Putin claims never existed.” But “today, Ukrainians defend the universal principle that no nation should be destroyed because a more powerful neighbor claims it has no right to exist.” Ukraine’s “fight is also taking place in classrooms where children learn the truth.”

Read more

‘Cyclospora outbreaks will only get worse as climate chaos grows’

Amy Moas at Newsweek

This “has been one of the most dangerous summers on record, and experts have been warning about it for decades,” says Amy Moas regarding “two deaths linked to the outbreak of cyclospora.” It is “easier to associate loss of life with extreme weather when it’s tied to a singular event.” But “you can ‘contact-trace’ this now-fatal outbreak back to the ongoing climate crisis.” If “summer gets longer and warmer, we’ll see a longer, hotter mechanism for the parasite to thrive.”

Read more

‘Fancy sodas fall flat with me’

Brenda Cronin at The Wall Street Journal

Fancy sodas “come in winsome bottles or sleek cans and have ridiculous flavors like watermelon-dandelion or rosehip-jacaranda,” but “they taste like carbonated cough syrup with a Windex chaser,” says Brenda Cronin. People “should be reveling in the gourmet soda parade,” if “only the flavors didn’t sound like products from Bath & Body Works” or “taste like a mashup of SweeTARTS and Jolly Ranchers.” When “drinking feels more like penance than a party, I’ll do without.”

Read more

]]> ‘The godmother of the “conspiracy mom”’

Jessica Winter at The New Yorker

After JFK’s assassination, Oklahoma housewife Shirley Martin “flung herself into investigating the crime and getting to know some of those closest to it,” says Jessica Winter. It is “generally understood today, as it was not understood 60-plus years ago, that those who subscribe to conspiracy theories tend to do so in order to make sense of an unstable reality,” and “in some ways, Martin was a preview of today’s post-Covid, stay-at-home ‘conspiracy mom’ or of the MAHA moms.”

Read more

‘The ethical perils of gene therapy’

Anjana Ahuja at the Financial Times

In China, a “risky experimental treatment was undertaken for a nonfatal condition; oversight by external authorities, regulators and ethical review boards in China was insufficient to avert tragedy,” says Anjana Ahuja. The “episode is another blow to a country vying to become a global leader in biotech,” as “truly advancing science means being open, honest and transparent about mistakes, as well as successes.” Parents “crave better lives for their children and ambitious researchers covet world firsts.”

Read more

‘I used to mock gym bros. Here’s why I became one.’

Emily Hoeven at the San Francisco Chronicle

It “may seem absurd to say that deadlifts and squats and bench presses changed my life,” but “then again, it wasn’t long ago that I couldn’t lift a coffee cup without excruciating pain,” says Emily Hoeven. It is “almost impossible to name an area of life that weightlifting doesn’t improve.” Studies “show that it boosts confidence and mood, strengthens bones, reduces joint pain and chronic inflammation, and improves cognition,” and it “can be especially beneficial for older women.”

Read more

‘How to fight a cloud’

Nitish Pahwa at Slate

It “feels like an inflection point” for the construction of AI data centers, as “more community leaders and elected officials are listening to their concerned constituents and hitting the pause button,” says Nitish Pahwa. But an “even bigger fight is at hand: whether these halts on buildouts will eventually lead to permanent bans, or whether elected officials are just kicking the clankers down the road.” It’s “one thing to impose a pause for a period of time” but “another to actually make use of that time.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-jfk-conspiracy-genetics-gyms-data-centers bxKweooNGmJTG9hvsbwcud Thu, 06 Aug 2026 15:42:02 +0000 Thu, 06 Aug 2026 18:09:42 +0000 false false false

‘The godmother of the “conspiracy mom”’

Jessica Winter at The New Yorker

After JFK’s assassination, Oklahoma housewife Shirley Martin “flung herself into investigating the crime and getting to know some of those closest to it,” says Jessica Winter. It is “generally understood today, as it was not understood 60-plus years ago, that those who subscribe to conspiracy theories tend to do so in order to make sense of an unstable reality,” and “in some ways, Martin was a preview of today’s post-Covid, stay-at-home ‘conspiracy mom’ or of the MAHA moms.”

Read more

‘The ethical perils of gene therapy’

Anjana Ahuja at the Financial Times

In China, a “risky experimental treatment was undertaken for a nonfatal condition; oversight by external authorities, regulators and ethical review boards in China was insufficient to avert tragedy,” says Anjana Ahuja. The “episode is another blow to a country vying to become a global leader in biotech,” as “truly advancing science means being open, honest and transparent about mistakes, as well as successes.” Parents “crave better lives for their children and ambitious researchers covet world firsts.”

Read more

‘I used to mock gym bros. Here’s why I became one.’

Emily Hoeven at the San Francisco Chronicle

It “may seem absurd to say that deadlifts and squats and bench presses changed my life,” but “then again, it wasn’t long ago that I couldn’t lift a coffee cup without excruciating pain,” says Emily Hoeven. It is “almost impossible to name an area of life that weightlifting doesn’t improve.” Studies “show that it boosts confidence and mood, strengthens bones, reduces joint pain and chronic inflammation, and improves cognition,” and it “can be especially beneficial for older women.”

Read more

‘How to fight a cloud’

Nitish Pahwa at Slate

It “feels like an inflection point” for the construction of AI data centers, as “more community leaders and elected officials are listening to their concerned constituents and hitting the pause button,” says Nitish Pahwa. But an “even bigger fight is at hand: whether these halts on buildouts will eventually lead to permanent bans, or whether elected officials are just kicking the clankers down the road.” It’s “one thing to impose a pause for a period of time” but “another to actually make use of that time.”

Read more

]]> ‘State corrections policy must do better than more of the same’

Brian Koehn at The Hill

Whether candidates “campaign on it or not, corrections is government’s responsibility,” and “governors cannot pretend it belongs to someone else,” says Brian Koehn. Governors “oversee systems that consume major public dollars, employ thousands of correctional professionals and decide whether people return home better prepared for the outside world or more damaged.” As “voters listen to candidates talk about freedom and safety, they should ask what candidates will do about correctional systems already under their authority.”

Read more

‘Sophie Cunningham’s actions speak far louder than her words’

Jason Page at MS NOW

There are “those looking to legitimately protect the safety of girls and women in sports and those looking to use the issue to demonize the transgender community,” and Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s “actions, more than her words, appear to put her far closer to the latter,” says Jason Page. Cunningham “claims to love everybody.” But in “choosing to pose for postgame photos on Sunday with outspoken trans critic Riley Gaines,” one “could easily wonder if Cunningham is telling us a different story.”

Read more

‘When you can’t afford to stay cool, the risks are life-and-death’

Sharon Block and Dr. Satchit Balsari at USA Today

Two “trends are dominating this summer — high temperatures and high inflation,” and “these two extremes combine to create a crisis that rarely makes headlines,” say Sharon Block and Dr. Satchit Balsari. Workers “may die in increased numbers because they can’t afford to stay cool,” a “predictable consequence of policy choices that leave working Americans choosing between the cost of the cooling they need to recover from work in extreme heat and the costs of other necessities of life.”

Read more

‘The cure for Russia’s labor shortage is worse than the disease’

Samuel Bendett and Maria Snegovaya at Foreign Policy

Among the “various challenges that Russia has faced since its ill-conceived full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one of the most acute has been a severe labor shortage,” say Samuel Bendett and Maria Snegovaya. Russia’s “deepening demographic crisis” combined “with mass emigration” has “sharply exacerbated the problem.” The Kremlin’s “response has rested on three pillars: mobilizing underutilized domestic labor, expanding prison labor and increasing labor migration.” But “each proves to be either insufficient or self-defeating.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-corrections-cunningham-transgender-heat-russia viDesdqifDm3W62oq2ATy7 Wed, 05 Aug 2026 17:19:17 +0000 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 12:45:49 +0000 false false false

‘State corrections policy must do better than more of the same’

Brian Koehn at The Hill

Whether candidates “campaign on it or not, corrections is government’s responsibility,” and “governors cannot pretend it belongs to someone else,” says Brian Koehn. Governors “oversee systems that consume major public dollars, employ thousands of correctional professionals and decide whether people return home better prepared for the outside world or more damaged.” As “voters listen to candidates talk about freedom and safety, they should ask what candidates will do about correctional systems already under their authority.”

Read more

‘Sophie Cunningham’s actions speak far louder than her words’

Jason Page at MS NOW

There are “those looking to legitimately protect the safety of girls and women in sports and those looking to use the issue to demonize the transgender community,” and Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham’s “actions, more than her words, appear to put her far closer to the latter,” says Jason Page. Cunningham “claims to love everybody.” But in “choosing to pose for postgame photos on Sunday with outspoken trans critic Riley Gaines,” one “could easily wonder if Cunningham is telling us a different story.”

Read more

‘When you can’t afford to stay cool, the risks are life-and-death’

Sharon Block and Dr. Satchit Balsari at USA Today

Two “trends are dominating this summer — high temperatures and high inflation,” and “these two extremes combine to create a crisis that rarely makes headlines,” say Sharon Block and Dr. Satchit Balsari. Workers “may die in increased numbers because they can’t afford to stay cool,” a “predictable consequence of policy choices that leave working Americans choosing between the cost of the cooling they need to recover from work in extreme heat and the costs of other necessities of life.”

Read more

‘The cure for Russia’s labor shortage is worse than the disease’

Samuel Bendett and Maria Snegovaya at Foreign Policy

Among the “various challenges that Russia has faced since its ill-conceived full-scale invasion of Ukraine, one of the most acute has been a severe labor shortage,” say Samuel Bendett and Maria Snegovaya. Russia’s “deepening demographic crisis” combined “with mass emigration” has “sharply exacerbated the problem.” The Kremlin’s “response has rested on three pillars: mobilizing underutilized domestic labor, expanding prison labor and increasing labor migration.” But “each proves to be either insufficient or self-defeating.”

Read more

]]> ‘One problem with attacking the Smithsonian? Americans like it.’

Kelsey Ables at The Atlantic

Even as the “museum complex continues to face a pressure campaign from the White House, public fondness for the Smithsonian — for its free entry and eclectic collections — is hard to break,” says Kelsey Ables. Museums have “been largely immune to the most deleterious effects of the culture wars.” Most “Americans, unlike the president, seem to trust these entities to do their thing” so “coming after a history museum may not be the base-galvanizing issue the White House hopes it is.”

Read more

‘The US government’s mislabeled map of Africa at a global AIDS conference shows again a failure to understand the continent’

Kenneth Ngure at The Guardian

At the 26th International AIDS Conference, a “slide presented by a senior U.S. State Department official displayed a map of Africa with country names glaringly scrambled and mislabeled,” says Kenneth Ngure. While the “mistake apparently occurred due to an overreliance on AI tools, it carried a painful symbolic weight.” The map “reinforced a longstanding frustration: that too many political leaders treat Africa as a monolithic abstraction rather than a continent of 54 distinct sovereign nations.”

Read more

‘Why patients wait months for care they don’t get’

Tessa Adzemović at The Boston Globe

Hospitals “were never designed to become long-term accommodations, but that’s become a reality for a select population,” says Tessa Adzemović. These “patients are medically cleared to leave but cannot be discharged because of capacity bottlenecks, insurance delays or legal complexities.” Many “prolonged hospitalizations have significant implications for patient outcomes, hospital resource utilization and healthcare costs.” The “reasons for these delayed discharges range from financial to administrative to legal, so any solution to the problem must be multifaceted.”

Read more

‘“Ted Lasso” is back, but is his moment over?’

A.A. Dowd at The American Prospect

As “comebacks go,” a new season of “Ted Lasso” is “not exactly improbable,” says A.A. Dowd. The show “remains one of the most widely watched series of the last decade, a true juggernaut of popularity.” But at “what point does a show go from having its finger planted firmly on the pulse of now to suddenly looking more out of touch than anything else?” We “may have reached the moment when Ted Lasso’s brand of turn-the-other-cheek humanism is no longer enough.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-smithsonian-trump-africa-doctors-ted-lasso RDsuGwtBz6JiA4fvmKMqpP Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:41:33 +0000 Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:46:27 +0000 false false false

‘One problem with attacking the Smithsonian? Americans like it.’

Kelsey Ables at The Atlantic

Even as the “museum complex continues to face a pressure campaign from the White House, public fondness for the Smithsonian — for its free entry and eclectic collections — is hard to break,” says Kelsey Ables. Museums have “been largely immune to the most deleterious effects of the culture wars.” Most “Americans, unlike the president, seem to trust these entities to do their thing” so “coming after a history museum may not be the base-galvanizing issue the White House hopes it is.”

Read more

‘The US government’s mislabeled map of Africa at a global AIDS conference shows again a failure to understand the continent’

Kenneth Ngure at The Guardian

At the 26th International AIDS Conference, a “slide presented by a senior U.S. State Department official displayed a map of Africa with country names glaringly scrambled and mislabeled,” says Kenneth Ngure. While the “mistake apparently occurred due to an overreliance on AI tools, it carried a painful symbolic weight.” The map “reinforced a longstanding frustration: that too many political leaders treat Africa as a monolithic abstraction rather than a continent of 54 distinct sovereign nations.”

Read more

‘Why patients wait months for care they don’t get’

Tessa Adzemović at The Boston Globe

Hospitals “were never designed to become long-term accommodations, but that’s become a reality for a select population,” says Tessa Adzemović. These “patients are medically cleared to leave but cannot be discharged because of capacity bottlenecks, insurance delays or legal complexities.” Many “prolonged hospitalizations have significant implications for patient outcomes, hospital resource utilization and healthcare costs.” The “reasons for these delayed discharges range from financial to administrative to legal, so any solution to the problem must be multifaceted.”

Read more

‘“Ted Lasso” is back, but is his moment over?’

A.A. Dowd at The American Prospect

As “comebacks go,” a new season of “Ted Lasso” is “not exactly improbable,” says A.A. Dowd. The show “remains one of the most widely watched series of the last decade, a true juggernaut of popularity.” But at “what point does a show go from having its finger planted firmly on the pulse of now to suddenly looking more out of touch than anything else?” We “may have reached the moment when Ted Lasso’s brand of turn-the-other-cheek humanism is no longer enough.”

Read more

]]> ‘Kids lose more than just books when school is on a screen’

Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and Katie A. Danielson at The Washington Post

Parents “don’t realize how different many aspects of elementary school have become,” say Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and Katie A. Danielson. Screens “organize the school day,” and “these technological changes in elementary classrooms might look like progress.” But “attention span in particular is weakened when schools prioritize constant stimulation over intellectual endurance.” As “technology becomes more powerful, distinctly human capacities become more valuable, not less.” Children “need a place designed for other aims, such as conversation instead of consumption.”

Read more

‘The New York-ification of media keeps growing, warts and all’

Justin Fox at Bloomberg

The “nation’s media capital is in many ways far less central to the national conversation than it used to be,” says Justin Fox. But in the “production of certain kinds of media — journalism in particular — New York is more dominant than ever.” The “New York-ification of media has for the most part continued to grow.” The “journalists who remain are increasingly concentrated in a city that, while wonderful, is utterly different from most of the rest of the country.”

Read more

‘The box office just rejected Hollywood’s AI bet’

Peter Zerzan at Newsweek

This year’s “box office has become a referendum on how films are made,” says Peter Zerzan. After “years of pandemic disruption, writers’ strikes and uncertainty, theatrical exhibition is finally recovering.” Americans “were told that AI would become the dominant form of visual storytelling.” But “instead, audiences are buying tickets to films that demanded extraordinary effort to make.” They “are discussing performances, practical effects and directorial choices rather than marveling at how efficiently a computer assembled images.”

Read more

‘Clinical trials aren’t the only way to know if flu shots work’

Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena at Time

It is “correct to note that observational studies of annual flu shots suffer from various statistical biases,” say Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena. Randomized trials “have earned their reputation as the ‘gold standard’ because they address a real statistical problem,” and “true randomized controlled trials remain the most rigorous form of evidence.” But this “can be drawn from the data we already have.” The “efficacy of flu shots in children is just one of thousands of questions we could answer this way.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-screens-schools-new-york-spider-man-flu QUeir3HsLpksmwvgcFouwc Mon, 03 Aug 2026 15:31:44 +0000 false false false

‘Kids lose more than just books when school is on a screen’

Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and Katie A. Danielson at The Washington Post

Parents “don’t realize how different many aspects of elementary school have become,” say Sarah Schneider Kavanagh and Katie A. Danielson. Screens “organize the school day,” and “these technological changes in elementary classrooms might look like progress.” But “attention span in particular is weakened when schools prioritize constant stimulation over intellectual endurance.” As “technology becomes more powerful, distinctly human capacities become more valuable, not less.” Children “need a place designed for other aims, such as conversation instead of consumption.”

Read more

‘The New York-ification of media keeps growing, warts and all’

Justin Fox at Bloomberg

The “nation’s media capital is in many ways far less central to the national conversation than it used to be,” says Justin Fox. But in the “production of certain kinds of media — journalism in particular — New York is more dominant than ever.” The “New York-ification of media has for the most part continued to grow.” The “journalists who remain are increasingly concentrated in a city that, while wonderful, is utterly different from most of the rest of the country.”

Read more

‘The box office just rejected Hollywood’s AI bet’

Peter Zerzan at Newsweek

This year’s “box office has become a referendum on how films are made,” says Peter Zerzan. After “years of pandemic disruption, writers’ strikes and uncertainty, theatrical exhibition is finally recovering.” Americans “were told that AI would become the dominant form of visual storytelling.” But “instead, audiences are buying tickets to films that demanded extraordinary effort to make.” They “are discussing performances, practical effects and directorial choices rather than marveling at how efficiently a computer assembled images.”

Read more

‘Clinical trials aren’t the only way to know if flu shots work’

Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena at Time

It is “correct to note that observational studies of annual flu shots suffer from various statistical biases,” say Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam Jena. Randomized trials “have earned their reputation as the ‘gold standard’ because they address a real statistical problem,” and “true randomized controlled trials remain the most rigorous form of evidence.” But this “can be drawn from the data we already have.” The “efficacy of flu shots in children is just one of thousands of questions we could answer this way.”

Read more

]]> ‘How trying to make sense of the Nolan Wells tragedy led to rampant misinformation’

Keisha N. Blain at MS NOW

In a “striking example of how misinformation can spread during a developing news story, a viral Facebook post claimed that Nolan Wells, the Black Mississippi teenager whose death after visiting a Gulf Coast island with a group of white friends remains under investigation, was related to the legendary journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells,” says Keisha N. Blain. For “many reasons, including ones related to race, history and geography, discussions about his death are especially susceptible to misinformation.”

Read more

‘Why is it so hard to ban child marriage?’

Sarah Jones at Intelligencer

Child marriage is a “fringe practice, even within the most conservative religious and cultural communities, but it is also more common than many Americans realize,” says Sarah Jones. Children “who marry are more likely to drop out of high school and face higher rates of poverty,” yet “lawmakers have dragged their feet.” Many “Republican lawmakers continue to see marriage as a solution to illicit sex or an underage pregnancy — and a way to enforce traditional values.”

Read more

‘The banality of evil in the Border Patrol’s secret anti-immigrant slur’

Gustavo Arellano at the Los Angeles Times

For “half a century, Border Patrol workers have used the onomatopoeic word” ‘tonk,’ referring to the “sound of someone getting hit, as slang for undocumented immigrants,” says Gustavo Arellano. The word is “workplace lingo showing that the banality of evil that’s la migra on its best days has transformed into something far uglier.” The “slur is so vile — predicated on violence by law enforcement, unlike ethnic jabs that insult food or culture — that it has never crossed over into mainstream English.”

Read more

‘Why are we still pretending Big Tech cares about our classrooms?’

Liz Shulman at the Chicago Tribune

The “field of education depends on human interaction, and the quality of instruction kids get should depend on an administrator’s human assessment rather than a machine’s,” says Liz Shulman. Kids “deserve protection in school. Instead, AI companies are furiously signing contracts with school districts.” If “Big Tech companies truly cared about kids and educators as they claim to, they would give money to public schools (beyond free Chromebooks and access to AI), which remain massively underfunded in practically every state.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-crime-death-immigration-child-marriage-big-tech JF4D7Cdv62aWZQyo45B5QM Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:22:31 +0000 Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:24:19 +0000 false false false

‘How trying to make sense of the Nolan Wells tragedy led to rampant misinformation’

Keisha N. Blain at MS NOW

In a “striking example of how misinformation can spread during a developing news story, a viral Facebook post claimed that Nolan Wells, the Black Mississippi teenager whose death after visiting a Gulf Coast island with a group of white friends remains under investigation, was related to the legendary journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells,” says Keisha N. Blain. For “many reasons, including ones related to race, history and geography, discussions about his death are especially susceptible to misinformation.”

Read more

‘Why is it so hard to ban child marriage?’

Sarah Jones at Intelligencer

Child marriage is a “fringe practice, even within the most conservative religious and cultural communities, but it is also more common than many Americans realize,” says Sarah Jones. Children “who marry are more likely to drop out of high school and face higher rates of poverty,” yet “lawmakers have dragged their feet.” Many “Republican lawmakers continue to see marriage as a solution to illicit sex or an underage pregnancy — and a way to enforce traditional values.”

Read more

‘The banality of evil in the Border Patrol’s secret anti-immigrant slur’

Gustavo Arellano at the Los Angeles Times

For “half a century, Border Patrol workers have used the onomatopoeic word” ‘tonk,’ referring to the “sound of someone getting hit, as slang for undocumented immigrants,” says Gustavo Arellano. The word is “workplace lingo showing that the banality of evil that’s la migra on its best days has transformed into something far uglier.” The “slur is so vile — predicated on violence by law enforcement, unlike ethnic jabs that insult food or culture — that it has never crossed over into mainstream English.”

Read more

‘Why are we still pretending Big Tech cares about our classrooms?’

Liz Shulman at the Chicago Tribune

The “field of education depends on human interaction, and the quality of instruction kids get should depend on an administrator’s human assessment rather than a machine’s,” says Liz Shulman. Kids “deserve protection in school. Instead, AI companies are furiously signing contracts with school districts.” If “Big Tech companies truly cared about kids and educators as they claim to, they would give money to public schools (beyond free Chromebooks and access to AI), which remain massively underfunded in practically every state.”

Read more

]]> ‘The Paramount deal is in trouble. It’s not about the movies.’

Sharon Waxman at The New York Times

Hollywood has been “thrown sideways by the news that 12 state attorneys general might have found a way to trip up the merger that almost nobody in the entertainment industry wanted,” says Sharon Waxman. For “months, the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance has been an all-but-done deal,” but concerns “over the future of CNN” are “what is driving the forces against this deal.” Paramount “seems well aware of this narrative,” and there “will be legal arguments.”

Read more

‘How bots took over our lives’

T.M. Brown at The New Yorker

During the “past decade, so-called bots, a slippery concept from the start, have gone from a conspiratorial curiosity to a familiar force in our daily lives,” says T.M. Brown. In the “popular imagination, they are suddenly everywhere and seem designed to annoy the hell out of people.” But the “impulse to treat bots like digital mosquitoes that need to be swatted away minimizes their role in making the internet work.” Bots are “most often used for mundane tasks.”

Read more

‘Israel runs the Iran playbook on Turkey’

Mason Letteau Stallings at The American Conservative

One of the “stranger geopolitical developments in the Middle East of late (leaving aside the present war) has been the rupture between Israel and Turkey,” says Mason Letteau Stallings. Most “worrying, considering the conflict in which the United States currently finds itself embroiled, are Israeli comparisons of Turkey to Iran.” From a “historical perspective, this is surprising,” but it’s “important to ensure that Israeli (or Turkish) interests, to the extent these diverge from our own, do not shape American policymaking.”

Read more

‘Donald Trump has turned the United States into an economic banana republic’

Richard Poplak at The Globe and Mail

The United States has become “perhaps the world’s first functioning Third World economy,” says Richard Poplak. While he “wouldn’t be caught dead articulating it this way, Trump’s vision is to turn the United States into a Third World economy.” While the “analogy is not perfect, it’s far from outlandish: however much the actual adults in the Oval Office may disapprove, the U.S. has reshaped revenue collection around the simple, regressive models preferred by Third World dictators.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-paramount-deal-bots-israel-trump tBLP3prcHqMpoCAesQ8XQN Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:15:36 +0000 Thu, 30 Jul 2026 17:17:46 +0000 false false false

‘The Paramount deal is in trouble. It’s not about the movies.’

Sharon Waxman at The New York Times

Hollywood has been “thrown sideways by the news that 12 state attorneys general might have found a way to trip up the merger that almost nobody in the entertainment industry wanted,” says Sharon Waxman. For “months, the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance has been an all-but-done deal,” but concerns “over the future of CNN” are “what is driving the forces against this deal.” Paramount “seems well aware of this narrative,” and there “will be legal arguments.”

Read more

‘How bots took over our lives’

T.M. Brown at The New Yorker

During the “past decade, so-called bots, a slippery concept from the start, have gone from a conspiratorial curiosity to a familiar force in our daily lives,” says T.M. Brown. In the “popular imagination, they are suddenly everywhere and seem designed to annoy the hell out of people.” But the “impulse to treat bots like digital mosquitoes that need to be swatted away minimizes their role in making the internet work.” Bots are “most often used for mundane tasks.”

Read more

‘Israel runs the Iran playbook on Turkey’

Mason Letteau Stallings at The American Conservative

One of the “stranger geopolitical developments in the Middle East of late (leaving aside the present war) has been the rupture between Israel and Turkey,” says Mason Letteau Stallings. Most “worrying, considering the conflict in which the United States currently finds itself embroiled, are Israeli comparisons of Turkey to Iran.” From a “historical perspective, this is surprising,” but it’s “important to ensure that Israeli (or Turkish) interests, to the extent these diverge from our own, do not shape American policymaking.”

Read more

‘Donald Trump has turned the United States into an economic banana republic’

Richard Poplak at The Globe and Mail

The United States has become “perhaps the world’s first functioning Third World economy,” says Richard Poplak. While he “wouldn’t be caught dead articulating it this way, Trump’s vision is to turn the United States into a Third World economy.” While the “analogy is not perfect, it’s far from outlandish: however much the actual adults in the Oval Office may disapprove, the U.S. has reshaped revenue collection around the simple, regressive models preferred by Third World dictators.”

Read more

]]> ‘India’s Gen Z just made Modi blink’

Rana Ayyub at The Washington Post

What “began as outrage over dysfunction in India’s college exam system built into something much larger — the first sustained, youth-led movement in years to force India’s powerful central government actually to concede ground,” says Rana Ayyub. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “government has seemed to elevate itself beyond the reach of dissent,” but the “critical mass that formed last week was something new.” It managed to “turn Modi himself into a subject of derision and satire.”

Read more

‘America’s housing boom risks creating tomorrow’s housing crisis’

Elizabeth Carmichael at Newsweek

America is “racing to build millions of new homes,” but in the “rush to solve today’s housing shortage, we’re creating neighborhoods that could become tomorrow’s financial and environmental liabilities,” says Elizabeth Carmichael. The “country needs new homes,” but “building faster won’t solve America’s housing crisis if we’re filling neighborhoods with developments that cost more to maintain, consume more energy, undermine residents’ health and require expensive retrofits.” Americans “should be treating every new development as infrastructure for the next century.”

Read more

‘The hidden cost of stress at work’

Lilly Springer, David Slusky and Anupam Jena at Time

Americans “work more hours per year than those in similar countries. Working is, in a sense, an American pastime,” say Lilly Springer, David Slusky and Anupam Jena. Many “jobs are stressful or physically demanding, imposing a toll on both mental and physical health.” The “question of how work affects our health is incredibly important.” Workplace conditions “can impact the health of not only workers themselves, but also their children,” as the “effects of work may reach beyond an individual employee.”

Read more

‘Trump’s Iran war casualty numbers don’t add up’

Renée Graham at The Boston Globe

After “four U.S. service members killed this month in the U.S./Israel war against Iran received a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, their names disappeared from the Pentagon’s public tracker for military casualties,” says Renée Graham. President Donald Trump is “cooking the books again, this time with the numbers of Iran war dead.” Even in an “administration where mendacity is policy, reclassifying war deaths to manipulate public opinion for this deeply unpopular war is unconscionable.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-india-protest-housing--stress-trump 8z3fJL6hFvRfNt2QWZEy29 Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:15:17 +0000 false false false

‘India’s Gen Z just made Modi blink’

Rana Ayyub at The Washington Post

What “began as outrage over dysfunction in India’s college exam system built into something much larger — the first sustained, youth-led movement in years to force India’s powerful central government actually to concede ground,” says Rana Ayyub. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “government has seemed to elevate itself beyond the reach of dissent,” but the “critical mass that formed last week was something new.” It managed to “turn Modi himself into a subject of derision and satire.”

Read more

‘America’s housing boom risks creating tomorrow’s housing crisis’

Elizabeth Carmichael at Newsweek

America is “racing to build millions of new homes,” but in the “rush to solve today’s housing shortage, we’re creating neighborhoods that could become tomorrow’s financial and environmental liabilities,” says Elizabeth Carmichael. The “country needs new homes,” but “building faster won’t solve America’s housing crisis if we’re filling neighborhoods with developments that cost more to maintain, consume more energy, undermine residents’ health and require expensive retrofits.” Americans “should be treating every new development as infrastructure for the next century.”

Read more

‘The hidden cost of stress at work’

Lilly Springer, David Slusky and Anupam Jena at Time

Americans “work more hours per year than those in similar countries. Working is, in a sense, an American pastime,” say Lilly Springer, David Slusky and Anupam Jena. Many “jobs are stressful or physically demanding, imposing a toll on both mental and physical health.” The “question of how work affects our health is incredibly important.” Workplace conditions “can impact the health of not only workers themselves, but also their children,” as the “effects of work may reach beyond an individual employee.”

Read more

‘Trump’s Iran war casualty numbers don’t add up’

Renée Graham at The Boston Globe

After “four U.S. service members killed this month in the U.S./Israel war against Iran received a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, their names disappeared from the Pentagon’s public tracker for military casualties,” says Renée Graham. President Donald Trump is “cooking the books again, this time with the numbers of Iran war dead.” Even in an “administration where mendacity is policy, reclassifying war deaths to manipulate public opinion for this deeply unpopular war is unconscionable.”

Read more

]]> ‘Cracker Barrel’s CEO ouster surprised Wall Street but not women’

Beth Kowitt at Bloomberg

Though it “seemed like” Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino “saved her job,” her recent firing “left some analysts scratching their heads,” says Beth Kowitt. But “boards are moving much faster to fire the big boss when things go bad,” and the “phenomenon is even more acute for female CEOs, who have always been under more intense scrutiny than their male counterparts.” Masino’s “tenure at Cracker Barrel is a textbook example of how we’ve ended up with these statistics.”

Read more

‘The great tick explosion: A tiny threat tests America’s love of nature.’

Patti Waldmeir at the Financial Times

It’s “easy to see why ticks loom so large in the American imagination,” says Patti Waldmeir. Headlines “portray them as a frightening new public health threat: Unfamiliar ticks turning up in unexpected places, bringing exotic new illnesses such as red meat allergies, debilitating infections and even death.” But “much can be done to reduce risk: Stick to the center of the trail, tuck socks into long trousers, check behind knees, groin and scalp after outings, wear insect repellent and use permethrin-treated clothing.”

Read more

‘Refugee Convention at 75: The world must keep the promise that saved me.’

Yusra Mardini at Al Jazeera

This year “marks the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the international agreement created after one of history’s darkest chapters to ensure that people forced to flee persecution would never again be left without protection,” says Syrian ex-refugee Yusra Mardini. Too “often, however, refugees are discussed only as numbers, political problems or security challenges.” Rarely “are they recognized for who they are: people.” Every refugee “should have the opportunity to seek safety,” and “every refugee deserves dignity.”

Read more

‘Yale loses the capitulation bowl’

Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect

Yale University’s president “got caught trying to make a deal with the Trump administration to change its admission procedures as a way to settle an administration investigation of Yale and the threat of sanctions,” says Robert Kuttner. But “instead of a deal, the secret negotiations have produced massive protests by faculty, students and alums.” Yale’s “efforts to give in to Trump blackmail are in striking contrast to the evolution of negotiations between the administration and Harvard.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-cracker-barrel-ticks-refugees-yale KjfftFUdhXkNocCWTza7ak Tue, 28 Jul 2026 17:31:57 +0000 Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:56:02 +0000 false false false

‘Cracker Barrel’s CEO ouster surprised Wall Street but not women’

Beth Kowitt at Bloomberg

Though it “seemed like” Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino “saved her job,” her recent firing “left some analysts scratching their heads,” says Beth Kowitt. But “boards are moving much faster to fire the big boss when things go bad,” and the “phenomenon is even more acute for female CEOs, who have always been under more intense scrutiny than their male counterparts.” Masino’s “tenure at Cracker Barrel is a textbook example of how we’ve ended up with these statistics.”

Read more

‘The great tick explosion: A tiny threat tests America’s love of nature.’

Patti Waldmeir at the Financial Times

It’s “easy to see why ticks loom so large in the American imagination,” says Patti Waldmeir. Headlines “portray them as a frightening new public health threat: Unfamiliar ticks turning up in unexpected places, bringing exotic new illnesses such as red meat allergies, debilitating infections and even death.” But “much can be done to reduce risk: Stick to the center of the trail, tuck socks into long trousers, check behind knees, groin and scalp after outings, wear insect repellent and use permethrin-treated clothing.”

Read more

‘Refugee Convention at 75: The world must keep the promise that saved me.’

Yusra Mardini at Al Jazeera

This year “marks the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the international agreement created after one of history’s darkest chapters to ensure that people forced to flee persecution would never again be left without protection,” says Syrian ex-refugee Yusra Mardini. Too “often, however, refugees are discussed only as numbers, political problems or security challenges.” Rarely “are they recognized for who they are: people.” Every refugee “should have the opportunity to seek safety,” and “every refugee deserves dignity.”

Read more

‘Yale loses the capitulation bowl’

Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect

Yale University’s president “got caught trying to make a deal with the Trump administration to change its admission procedures as a way to settle an administration investigation of Yale and the threat of sanctions,” says Robert Kuttner. But “instead of a deal, the secret negotiations have produced massive protests by faculty, students and alums.” Yale’s “efforts to give in to Trump blackmail are in striking contrast to the evolution of negotiations between the administration and Harvard.”

Read more

]]> ‘The drug policy debate’s common ground: better treatment and recovery’

Jim Crotty at The Hill

Few “public policy debates are as polarized as drug policy, which is often framed around two competing visions — prohibition and decriminalization,” says Jim Crotty. Both are “passionate about their positions, and both make valid arguments,” but they “frequently overlook the same prerequisite for success: a system capable of meeting the country’s growing demand for addiction treatment and recovery services.” The U.S. “must help promote careers in treatment and recovery through more competitive pay, streamlined education and licensing pathways.”

Read more

‘AI can fuel biological weapons. We must harness its power for defense.’

Annie Jacobsen at The Guardian

AI can “help bad actors generate recipes for biological weapons” but also “track disease outbreaks and deliver critical public health information to millions of people,” says Annie Jacobsen. The “question is not whether AI can do catastrophic harm in the realm of biological sciences — it most certainly can — but whether public health officials can figure out how to deploy AI as a defensive tool faster than malicious actors deploy it as an offensive one.”

Read more

‘Joint European response to wildfires is essential’

Le Monde editorial board

The “flames currently devastating much of Western Europe are the latest, and dramatic, manifestation of climate change driven by human activity,” says the Le Monde editorial board. Beyond France and Spain, fires are “raging across Germany, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands,” and the “map clearly shows that any response must be coordinated at the European level.” The “increasing frequency of extreme weather events has forced both rapid adaptation and a global rethinking of how to respond.”

Read more

‘We need more therapists. They need more power.’

Isabel M. Perera at USA Today

Americans “need therapy now more than ever before,” but if “you’ve tried to find a therapist recently, you know it’s tough,” says Isabel M. Perera. The “people we rely on to help us cope with life’s hardest moments are themselves unsupported.” Weak “union representation makes it difficult for them to negotiate fair pay” and “advocate for better working conditions.” From “rehab centers to school counselors, the entire mental health ecosystem suffers from underinvestment and fragmentation.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-drug-policy-ai-europe-therapy Dvba7NAEVHmzVXtDTUhYog Mon, 27 Jul 2026 15:42:37 +0000 false false false

‘The drug policy debate’s common ground: better treatment and recovery’

Jim Crotty at The Hill

Few “public policy debates are as polarized as drug policy, which is often framed around two competing visions — prohibition and decriminalization,” says Jim Crotty. Both are “passionate about their positions, and both make valid arguments,” but they “frequently overlook the same prerequisite for success: a system capable of meeting the country’s growing demand for addiction treatment and recovery services.” The U.S. “must help promote careers in treatment and recovery through more competitive pay, streamlined education and licensing pathways.”

Read more

‘AI can fuel biological weapons. We must harness its power for defense.’

Annie Jacobsen at The Guardian

AI can “help bad actors generate recipes for biological weapons” but also “track disease outbreaks and deliver critical public health information to millions of people,” says Annie Jacobsen. The “question is not whether AI can do catastrophic harm in the realm of biological sciences — it most certainly can — but whether public health officials can figure out how to deploy AI as a defensive tool faster than malicious actors deploy it as an offensive one.”

Read more

‘Joint European response to wildfires is essential’

Le Monde editorial board

The “flames currently devastating much of Western Europe are the latest, and dramatic, manifestation of climate change driven by human activity,” says the Le Monde editorial board. Beyond France and Spain, fires are “raging across Germany, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands,” and the “map clearly shows that any response must be coordinated at the European level.” The “increasing frequency of extreme weather events has forced both rapid adaptation and a global rethinking of how to respond.”

Read more

‘We need more therapists. They need more power.’

Isabel M. Perera at USA Today

Americans “need therapy now more than ever before,” but if “you’ve tried to find a therapist recently, you know it’s tough,” says Isabel M. Perera. The “people we rely on to help us cope with life’s hardest moments are themselves unsupported.” Weak “union representation makes it difficult for them to negotiate fair pay” and “advocate for better working conditions.” From “rehab centers to school counselors, the entire mental health ecosystem suffers from underinvestment and fragmentation.”

Read more

]]> ‘Why the world still can’t agree about alcohol’

Tim Brinkhof at Time

De-normalizing “alcohol consumption seems like a logical next step after cracking down on smoking,” says Tim Brinkhof. But as “societies everywhere ramp up efforts to discourage drinking, a bigger, more difficult question arises. Are the increasingly thorough measures we take to protect our health worth what we give up?” This “dilemma is arguably more apparent with alcohol than with tobacco.” Alcohol is “used to honor, celebrate and connect,” and “these traditions are worth considering and preserving.”

Read more

‘Smoky skies? Throw shade at the fossil fuel industry.’

Breena Holland at The Philadelphia Inquirer

The recent “air quality is brought to you by the fossil fuel industry,” says Breena Holland. To “quibble about how much of the Canadian fires are due to human-caused climate change as opposed to poor forest management or normal climatic changes is to not see the fire for the trees.” The “fossil fuel industry has created human-made climate change, and it has won the war against it.” Rather than “prioritize planet over profit, it chose to ‘manufacture uncertainty.’”

Read more

‘Shooting by GEO Group employee adds to argument for congressional oversight’

Ja’han Jones at MS NOW

It’s “past time to place private prison firm GEO Group under a microscope,” says Ja’han Jones. The company “added to a growing list of controversies on Wednesday when one of its employees was charged with assault for allegedly shooting a woman in the foot while she was protesting.” The “relationship between the administration and for-profit prison firms, especially GEO Group, already warranted congressional scrutiny,” and the “shooting of a demonstrator by a GEO Group employee proves this scrutiny is urgently needed.”

Read more

‘What will you regret? Studying sabbaticals taught me a hard truth.’

DJ DiDonna at The Washington Post

People who take sabbaticals “universally describe their time off in superlatives: as a peak life experience on par in importance with the birth of a child,” says DJ DiDonna. Given the “extended nature of their time off — a proper sabbatical is ideally between three and nine months — there’s ample time to check items off a bucket list.” But the “most transformative sabbaticals included periods of work-like experimentation during which people try out different ways to live their lives.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-alcohol-fossil-fuels-prisons-labor nCeUhTbdRZ8tXgChA434Hn Fri, 24 Jul 2026 18:06:53 +0000 Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:21:28 +0000 false false false

‘Why the world still can’t agree about alcohol’

Tim Brinkhof at Time

De-normalizing “alcohol consumption seems like a logical next step after cracking down on smoking,” says Tim Brinkhof. But as “societies everywhere ramp up efforts to discourage drinking, a bigger, more difficult question arises. Are the increasingly thorough measures we take to protect our health worth what we give up?” This “dilemma is arguably more apparent with alcohol than with tobacco.” Alcohol is “used to honor, celebrate and connect,” and “these traditions are worth considering and preserving.”

Read more

‘Smoky skies? Throw shade at the fossil fuel industry.’

Breena Holland at The Philadelphia Inquirer

The recent “air quality is brought to you by the fossil fuel industry,” says Breena Holland. To “quibble about how much of the Canadian fires are due to human-caused climate change as opposed to poor forest management or normal climatic changes is to not see the fire for the trees.” The “fossil fuel industry has created human-made climate change, and it has won the war against it.” Rather than “prioritize planet over profit, it chose to ‘manufacture uncertainty.’”

Read more

‘Shooting by GEO Group employee adds to argument for congressional oversight’

Ja’han Jones at MS NOW

It’s “past time to place private prison firm GEO Group under a microscope,” says Ja’han Jones. The company “added to a growing list of controversies on Wednesday when one of its employees was charged with assault for allegedly shooting a woman in the foot while she was protesting.” The “relationship between the administration and for-profit prison firms, especially GEO Group, already warranted congressional scrutiny,” and the “shooting of a demonstrator by a GEO Group employee proves this scrutiny is urgently needed.”

Read more

‘What will you regret? Studying sabbaticals taught me a hard truth.’

DJ DiDonna at The Washington Post

People who take sabbaticals “universally describe their time off in superlatives: as a peak life experience on par in importance with the birth of a child,” says DJ DiDonna. Given the “extended nature of their time off — a proper sabbatical is ideally between three and nine months — there’s ample time to check items off a bucket list.” But the “most transformative sabbaticals included periods of work-like experimentation during which people try out different ways to live their lives.”

Read more

]]> ‘Big money is distorting college sports in too many ways to count’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

College sports has been “known for its regional affiliation,” but “after the latest major conference realignment,” this has “become a distant memory,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. It has become “difficult for those competing to be both athletes and active students” because “conferences are no longer composed of teams in neighboring states but instead made up of schools that span the country.” Students “find themselves spending more time on the road or in the airport than they spend in class.”

Read more

‘Just say “no” to nepo senators’

Nia-Malika Henderson at Bloomberg

Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) “chose not to use her legal last name,” Nordone, “when she was sworn in as her brother’s replacement last week,” an “obvious clue that she was thinking as a candidate, not just a caretaker,” says Nia-Malika Henderson. Graham “wants the seat because her brother had the seat.” If she “wins it, it will be because of rank nepotism,” as she has “no real experience in politics, other than appearing in ads for her brother’s various campaigns.”

Read more

‘Smoke-filled summers cannot become the norm’

Jill Burcum at The Minnesota Star Tribune

Canadian wildfire smoke is “blanketing Minnesota again and again, turning blue skies to apocalyptic yellow, with ash coating cars and windowsills,” says Jill Burcum. The “gloomy haze has made it challenging to enjoy our world-class natural resources during the season when they’re easiest to appreciate.” Canada has “already stepped up to help in a big way.” Combining U.S. and Canadian “resources, technology and expertise is our best shot at preventing and getting ahead of fires before they become a crisis.”

Read more

‘Chaff can fool Russia’s radar’

Robert Brull at The Wall Street Journal

Ukraine “won’t always have the element of surprise,” and as “long-range drones become increasingly crucial to modern warfare, militaries must develop new ways to protect them,“ says Robert Brull. As “long-range drones get larger and carry heavier payloads, chaff is becoming more attractive as a low-cost way to confuse radar defense systems.” Ukraine’s “powerful long-range drones will meet increasingly sophisticated networks of air defenses.” To “prepare, the offense needs to invest in a new defense: improving chaff.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-college-sports-senate-smoke-russia Sj4HGQqKUMu4L6hZ4igMsk Thu, 23 Jul 2026 18:45:38 +0000 Thu, 23 Jul 2026 19:27:56 +0000 false false false

‘Big money is distorting college sports in too many ways to count’

The Dallas Morning News editorial board

College sports has been “known for its regional affiliation,” but “after the latest major conference realignment,” this has “become a distant memory,” says The Dallas Morning News editorial board. It has become “difficult for those competing to be both athletes and active students” because “conferences are no longer composed of teams in neighboring states but instead made up of schools that span the country.” Students “find themselves spending more time on the road or in the airport than they spend in class.”

Read more

‘Just say “no” to nepo senators’

Nia-Malika Henderson at Bloomberg

Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) “chose not to use her legal last name,” Nordone, “when she was sworn in as her brother’s replacement last week,” an “obvious clue that she was thinking as a candidate, not just a caretaker,” says Nia-Malika Henderson. Graham “wants the seat because her brother had the seat.” If she “wins it, it will be because of rank nepotism,” as she has “no real experience in politics, other than appearing in ads for her brother’s various campaigns.”

Read more

‘Smoke-filled summers cannot become the norm’

Jill Burcum at The Minnesota Star Tribune

Canadian wildfire smoke is “blanketing Minnesota again and again, turning blue skies to apocalyptic yellow, with ash coating cars and windowsills,” says Jill Burcum. The “gloomy haze has made it challenging to enjoy our world-class natural resources during the season when they’re easiest to appreciate.” Canada has “already stepped up to help in a big way.” Combining U.S. and Canadian “resources, technology and expertise is our best shot at preventing and getting ahead of fires before they become a crisis.”

Read more

‘Chaff can fool Russia’s radar’

Robert Brull at The Wall Street Journal

Ukraine “won’t always have the element of surprise,” and as “long-range drones become increasingly crucial to modern warfare, militaries must develop new ways to protect them,“ says Robert Brull. As “long-range drones get larger and carry heavier payloads, chaff is becoming more attractive as a low-cost way to confuse radar defense systems.” Ukraine’s “powerful long-range drones will meet increasingly sophisticated networks of air defenses.” To “prepare, the offense needs to invest in a new defense: improving chaff.”

Read more

]]> ‘Structural shifts demand a new central banking mindset’

Vivekanand Jayakumar at The Hill

While the “primary objective of most central banks” is “unchanged, the post-pandemic economic landscape has evolved in ways that require policymakers to rethink how monetary policy is designed,” says Vivekanand Jayakumar. The “pandemic shock and its aftermath substantially altered underlying economic trends and gave rise to a new geopolitical reality.” Forces are “reshaping inflation dynamics, impacting economy’s growth potential, and altering monetary policy transmission mechanisms.” So “central bankers will need to exhibit greater flexibility, adaptability and forward-looking decision-making.”

Read more

‘Where did all the computer science professors go?’

Lila Shroff and Rose Horowitch at The Atlantic

AI companies are “turning into something like mini-universities,” say Lila Shroff and Rose Horowitch. As AI has “taken center stage, Silicon Valley has intensified its efforts to recruit star researchers and looked beyond computer science departments.” While “plenty of research is still happening within universities,” the “result is a flywheel.” As “more academics get sucked up by industry, the center of AI research moves further from academia, thus increasing the incentive for remaining researchers to leave.”

Read more

‘We are taking hobbies too far’

Meehika Barua at Time

Having hobbies shows that you “have the time, money and energy to spend on them,” says Meehika Barua. But we have “turned hobbies from optional leisure activities into a marker of identity.” Hobbies are “increasingly sold as a route to becoming a more interesting or successful person rather than simply a way to spend free time.” This can “leave people feeling guilty if they prefer quieter pursuits or if they discover they don’t enjoy the hobby that everyone else seems to love.”

Read more

‘He may be Trump’s only real friend. He’s quietly transforming the world.’

Andrea Bernstein at Slate

Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff “seems like Trump, a New York real estate developer turned world dealmaker,” says Andrea Bernstein. But in an administration that “privileges snarling visages, Witkoff is nearly universally described as kind or nice, a quality he has used to good diplomatic effect.” As Witkoff “presided over a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas and Israel, he surrounded those talks with meetings with big-name Gulf leaders.” He is “unabashed about performing diplomacy through a business lens.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-central-banks-computer-science-hobbies-trump 3N9RoYfbDEXoLT6yRpGfP9 Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:34:30 +0000 Wed, 22 Jul 2026 21:43:20 +0000 false false false

‘Structural shifts demand a new central banking mindset’

Vivekanand Jayakumar at The Hill

While the “primary objective of most central banks” is “unchanged, the post-pandemic economic landscape has evolved in ways that require policymakers to rethink how monetary policy is designed,” says Vivekanand Jayakumar. The “pandemic shock and its aftermath substantially altered underlying economic trends and gave rise to a new geopolitical reality.” Forces are “reshaping inflation dynamics, impacting economy’s growth potential, and altering monetary policy transmission mechanisms.” So “central bankers will need to exhibit greater flexibility, adaptability and forward-looking decision-making.”

Read more

‘Where did all the computer science professors go?’

Lila Shroff and Rose Horowitch at The Atlantic

AI companies are “turning into something like mini-universities,” say Lila Shroff and Rose Horowitch. As AI has “taken center stage, Silicon Valley has intensified its efforts to recruit star researchers and looked beyond computer science departments.” While “plenty of research is still happening within universities,” the “result is a flywheel.” As “more academics get sucked up by industry, the center of AI research moves further from academia, thus increasing the incentive for remaining researchers to leave.”

Read more

‘We are taking hobbies too far’

Meehika Barua at Time

Having hobbies shows that you “have the time, money and energy to spend on them,” says Meehika Barua. But we have “turned hobbies from optional leisure activities into a marker of identity.” Hobbies are “increasingly sold as a route to becoming a more interesting or successful person rather than simply a way to spend free time.” This can “leave people feeling guilty if they prefer quieter pursuits or if they discover they don’t enjoy the hobby that everyone else seems to love.”

Read more

‘He may be Trump’s only real friend. He’s quietly transforming the world.’

Andrea Bernstein at Slate

Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff “seems like Trump, a New York real estate developer turned world dealmaker,” says Andrea Bernstein. But in an administration that “privileges snarling visages, Witkoff is nearly universally described as kind or nice, a quality he has used to good diplomatic effect.” As Witkoff “presided over a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas and Israel, he surrounded those talks with meetings with big-name Gulf leaders.” He is “unabashed about performing diplomacy through a business lens.”

Read more

]]> ‘This is why our fresh produce keeps making us sick’

Timothy D. Lytton at The New York Times

While “cases of cyclosporiasis have reached a new high this year, the parasitic infection has spread in recent summers, too, abetted by warmer weather and higher consumption of fruits and vegetables,” says Timothy D. Lytton. To “break the cycle of infection, the fresh produce industry has to step up its efforts to prevent contamination on farms and better sanitize food.” The government also “needs to identify outbreaks more quickly so that contaminated food can be removed from store shelves.”

Read more

‘The new college virtue isn’t about if you cheat, but how well’

Natalie Sandoval at USA Today

At colleges, AI “makes cheating easier, certainly,” says Natalie Sandoval. But its “rise is downstream from a cultural shift in higher education.” Americans are “witnessing a move away from a culture that valued honor and integrity (think of the social conditions that once made ‘a man of his word’ mean something) toward one where ambition and prestige are the only markers of worth.” To “be a striver is to be concerned with the appearance of prestige above all else.”

Read more

‘The attack on workers begins and ends with Black women’

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Ayanna Pressley at The Boston Globe

Black women have “always been the backbone of the American economy,” say Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). In 2025, “thousands of Black women left or lost their jobs, with college-educated Black women and Black women in the federal workforce being disproportionately impacted.” What is “happening to Black women in the workforce is a harbinger for every worker and family in America,” a “perfect storm of this administration’s attacks on workers’ rights, equal pay and the workforce.”

Read more

‘“The Odyssey” will overwhelm you — and not only with spectacle’

Will Leitch at The Washington Post

The “movie industry appears to have been turned entirely upside down this year” as big-budget films have “dramatically underperformed,” says Will Leitch. This is “why there remains, truly, no one like Christopher Nolan,” who has “more on his mind than just spectacle.” His new film “The Odyssey” is “about the hubris of man, about how the more we convince ourselves we have conquered nature and the gods, and believe that we no longer need to look to history.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-cyclosporiasis-health-college-black-women-odyssey 3Sb5dN22N6StzhSmTSwfBP Tue, 21 Jul 2026 19:13:03 +0000 Tue, 21 Jul 2026 19:43:15 +0000 false false false

‘This is why our fresh produce keeps making us sick’

Timothy D. Lytton at The New York Times

While “cases of cyclosporiasis have reached a new high this year, the parasitic infection has spread in recent summers, too, abetted by warmer weather and higher consumption of fruits and vegetables,” says Timothy D. Lytton. To “break the cycle of infection, the fresh produce industry has to step up its efforts to prevent contamination on farms and better sanitize food.” The government also “needs to identify outbreaks more quickly so that contaminated food can be removed from store shelves.”

Read more

‘The new college virtue isn’t about if you cheat, but how well’

Natalie Sandoval at USA Today

At colleges, AI “makes cheating easier, certainly,” says Natalie Sandoval. But its “rise is downstream from a cultural shift in higher education.” Americans are “witnessing a move away from a culture that valued honor and integrity (think of the social conditions that once made ‘a man of his word’ mean something) toward one where ambition and prestige are the only markers of worth.” To “be a striver is to be concerned with the appearance of prestige above all else.”

Read more

‘The attack on workers begins and ends with Black women’

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Ayanna Pressley at The Boston Globe

Black women have “always been the backbone of the American economy,” say Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.). In 2025, “thousands of Black women left or lost their jobs, with college-educated Black women and Black women in the federal workforce being disproportionately impacted.” What is “happening to Black women in the workforce is a harbinger for every worker and family in America,” a “perfect storm of this administration’s attacks on workers’ rights, equal pay and the workforce.”

Read more

‘“The Odyssey” will overwhelm you — and not only with spectacle’

Will Leitch at The Washington Post

The “movie industry appears to have been turned entirely upside down this year” as big-budget films have “dramatically underperformed,” says Will Leitch. This is “why there remains, truly, no one like Christopher Nolan,” who has “more on his mind than just spectacle.” His new film “The Odyssey” is “about the hubris of man, about how the more we convince ourselves we have conquered nature and the gods, and believe that we no longer need to look to history.”

Read more

]]> ‘Trump’s war on journalists’

Ruth Marcus at The New Yorker

President Donald Trump “seized on another opportunity to threaten journalists,” as New York Times reporters “received subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury,” says Ruth Marcus. The Justice Department has “depicted the subpoenas as a benign move,” but “journalists’ access to information will evaporate if they cannot assure their sources of confidentiality.” This “risk is omnipresent, but it is heightened in the current moment, when reporting about the inner workings of government is more crucial than ever.”

Read more

‘Vamos España? Why this World Cup victory for Spain feels so different from the others.’

María Ramírez at The Guardian

Spain’s FIFA World Cup victory “felt as though the success belonged to many more people around the world, from Gaza, where Spain has come to represent solidarity with the Palestinian cause, to Brazil,” says María Ramírez. The “country itself is in a better place despite the deep political polarization and widespread mood of dissatisfaction.” Spain’s “strength on the pitch lies not in individual brilliance but in a cohesiveness that becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”

Read more

‘AI will shift “prestige careers” to talent, not pedigree’

Marcus Collins at Newsweek

Amid the “broader discourse about AI’s impact on jobs, there’s been a lot of chatter about AI obliterating what many think of as the ‘prestige’ career track,” says Marcus Collins. With “execution available at the touch of a button, the white-collar prestige career bargain is collapsing.” For “people who were counting on it, this may feel like the end of the world,” but “for the people who were never on that path, the future is as bright as ever.”

Read more

‘Too many congressional races are over before they start. Here’s a remedy.’

Mark Z. Barabak at the Los Angeles Times

As “recently as the late 1990s, around four in 10 congressional districts were considered competitive,” but today “only 18 of 435 House districts are considered toss-ups,” says Mark Z. Barabak. This is “hardly an accident, as lawmakers have increasingly manipulated the election process to suit themselves, rejiggering congressional districts to sideline voters and boost their political parties.” Congress should “enact changes in time for the next scheduled round of redistricting, which is due to take place after the 2030 census.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-trump-journalists-spain-ai-congress ogmnXUG2btgupoNCVoN9w5 Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000 Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:23:48 +0000 false false false

‘Trump’s war on journalists’

Ruth Marcus at The New Yorker

President Donald Trump “seized on another opportunity to threaten journalists,” as New York Times reporters “received subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury,” says Ruth Marcus. The Justice Department has “depicted the subpoenas as a benign move,” but “journalists’ access to information will evaporate if they cannot assure their sources of confidentiality.” This “risk is omnipresent, but it is heightened in the current moment, when reporting about the inner workings of government is more crucial than ever.”

Read more

‘Vamos España? Why this World Cup victory for Spain feels so different from the others.’

María Ramírez at The Guardian

Spain’s FIFA World Cup victory “felt as though the success belonged to many more people around the world, from Gaza, where Spain has come to represent solidarity with the Palestinian cause, to Brazil,” says María Ramírez. The “country itself is in a better place despite the deep political polarization and widespread mood of dissatisfaction.” Spain’s “strength on the pitch lies not in individual brilliance but in a cohesiveness that becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”

Read more

‘AI will shift “prestige careers” to talent, not pedigree’

Marcus Collins at Newsweek

Amid the “broader discourse about AI’s impact on jobs, there’s been a lot of chatter about AI obliterating what many think of as the ‘prestige’ career track,” says Marcus Collins. With “execution available at the touch of a button, the white-collar prestige career bargain is collapsing.” For “people who were counting on it, this may feel like the end of the world,” but “for the people who were never on that path, the future is as bright as ever.”

Read more

‘Too many congressional races are over before they start. Here’s a remedy.’

Mark Z. Barabak at the Los Angeles Times

As “recently as the late 1990s, around four in 10 congressional districts were considered competitive,” but today “only 18 of 435 House districts are considered toss-ups,” says Mark Z. Barabak. This is “hardly an accident, as lawmakers have increasingly manipulated the election process to suit themselves, rejiggering congressional districts to sideline voters and boost their political parties.” Congress should “enact changes in time for the next scheduled round of redistricting, which is due to take place after the 2030 census.”

Read more

]]> ‘America’s trillion-dollar failure’

Ro Khanna at Foreign Affairs

The media’s Department of Defense coverage has “focused on military parades, high-profile firings and lectures about haircuts,” says Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). A “less-acknowledged but just as worrisome development has been progressively undermining the U.S. military: Defense acquisition remains stubbornly slow and wildly over budget.” The Pentagon “needs to be as nimble as it is strong or it risks losing its ability to respond to global hot spots and to deter great-power conflict.”

Read more

‘When did sports get so loud?’

Ellen Cushing at The Atlantic

Baseball is “wall-to-wall stimulation,” and “in this way, baseball is explicitly following other sports, which were earlier to invest in state-of-the-art multifactor sound systems, huge screens and sophisticated lighting schemas,” says Ellen Cushing. Many organizations are “focusing not on season-ticket-holding diehards but on more casual fans who want a big night out, are willing to pay for it and may need to be guided through a game with aural or visual cues about how to feel at any given moment.”

Read more

‘I see my father in the fathers killed by ICE’

Ingrid Rojas Contreras at Time

“As a Latina, it is impossible for me not to see my father when I think of” the men killed by ICE, says Ingrid Rojas Contreras. “In them, I see men who wanted nothing but a better life for their children.” Families “like mine can’t help but feel their families’ pain.” To “grieve is to take stock of what we have lost, can lose and to spend time deconstructing the harmful narratives that cause our grief.”

Read more

‘How the networks handled President Trump’s speech about election integrity’

Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute

In the “days leading up to Thursday night’s address, there were questions about just how factual Trump’s address would be,” and “because of all the discourse beforehand, there were questions about whether or not TV networks would air Trump’s address,” says Tom Jones. It was “another night of networks trying to figure out how to cover a president who often makes claims that simply are not true or, at the very least, are misleading.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-pentagon-congress-sports-ice-donald-trump 6gxSvCznA7ctUsczXwYbn8 Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:40:55 +0000 Fri, 17 Jul 2026 18:33:36 +0000 false false false

‘America’s trillion-dollar failure’

Ro Khanna at Foreign Affairs

The media’s Department of Defense coverage has “focused on military parades, high-profile firings and lectures about haircuts,” says Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). A “less-acknowledged but just as worrisome development has been progressively undermining the U.S. military: Defense acquisition remains stubbornly slow and wildly over budget.” The Pentagon “needs to be as nimble as it is strong or it risks losing its ability to respond to global hot spots and to deter great-power conflict.”

Read more

‘When did sports get so loud?’

Ellen Cushing at The Atlantic

Baseball is “wall-to-wall stimulation,” and “in this way, baseball is explicitly following other sports, which were earlier to invest in state-of-the-art multifactor sound systems, huge screens and sophisticated lighting schemas,” says Ellen Cushing. Many organizations are “focusing not on season-ticket-holding diehards but on more casual fans who want a big night out, are willing to pay for it and may need to be guided through a game with aural or visual cues about how to feel at any given moment.”

Read more

‘I see my father in the fathers killed by ICE’

Ingrid Rojas Contreras at Time

“As a Latina, it is impossible for me not to see my father when I think of” the men killed by ICE, says Ingrid Rojas Contreras. “In them, I see men who wanted nothing but a better life for their children.” Families “like mine can’t help but feel their families’ pain.” To “grieve is to take stock of what we have lost, can lose and to spend time deconstructing the harmful narratives that cause our grief.”

Read more

‘How the networks handled President Trump’s speech about election integrity’

Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute

In the “days leading up to Thursday night’s address, there were questions about just how factual Trump’s address would be,” and “because of all the discourse beforehand, there were questions about whether or not TV networks would air Trump’s address,” says Tom Jones. It was “another night of networks trying to figure out how to cover a president who often makes claims that simply are not true or, at the very least, are misleading.”

Read more

]]> ‘The International Criminal Court, an imperfect but essential safeguard against impunity’

Le Monde editorial board

International justice is “not perfect, and at times those who uphold it may undermine it,” says the Le Monde editorial board. This does “not justify the all-out offensive launched by United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio against the International Criminal Court (ICC).” Washington has “consistently campaigned against an institution established to limit the principle of national sovereignty — a principle often invoked by perpetrators of the gravest crimes, whether heads of state or political leaders, to escape prosecution.”

Read more

‘Yemen is edging closer to renewed confrontation’

Ahmed al-Shalafi at Al Jazeera

Yemen is “slipping out of its fragile de-escalation and back into the heart of regional tensions,” says Ahmed al-Shalafi. An incident “involving the Iranian aircraft that entered Yemeni airspace was not merely a dispute over a flight.” It “exposed the extent to which the war in Yemen has become intertwined with the confrontation between the United States and Iran, and raised an old question in a new form: Can Yemen remain outside any broader regional escalation”?

Read more

‘Brace yourself for the AI public relations blitz’

J.B. Branch at the Chicago Tribune

While “some AI products have proved fun or useful, Americans are increasingly suspicious of the technology as a whole,” says J.B. Branch. But the “tech bros see it as nothing more than a serious public relations problem. So get ready for the rehabilitation campaign.” Americans “shouldn’t buy that narrative,” as companies “cannot spend two decades building social media platforms that fuel misinformation, destabilize institutions and harm children, and then expect approval for a new technology that will hyperscale these problems.”

Read more

‘Trump’s DOJ is now targeting The New York Times for basic reporting’

Shirin Ali at Slate

Donald Trump is “angry with The New York Times again and has deployed his usual tactics, weaponizing his position of power to take the newspaper to court,” says Shirin Ali. Journalists “often use anonymous sources in order to report on sensitive information, as well as to protect the identities of sources, who often risk their jobs and safety.” But the “Trump administration, though, has been one of the most aggressive and antagonistic in U.S. history against journalists.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-icc-court-yemen-ai-trump kw7iv2eoRtonaAYTwkvU9Z Thu, 16 Jul 2026 18:09:04 +0000 Thu, 16 Jul 2026 19:10:20 +0000 false false false

‘The International Criminal Court, an imperfect but essential safeguard against impunity’

Le Monde editorial board

International justice is “not perfect, and at times those who uphold it may undermine it,” says the Le Monde editorial board. This does “not justify the all-out offensive launched by United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio against the International Criminal Court (ICC).” Washington has “consistently campaigned against an institution established to limit the principle of national sovereignty — a principle often invoked by perpetrators of the gravest crimes, whether heads of state or political leaders, to escape prosecution.”

Read more

‘Yemen is edging closer to renewed confrontation’

Ahmed al-Shalafi at Al Jazeera

Yemen is “slipping out of its fragile de-escalation and back into the heart of regional tensions,” says Ahmed al-Shalafi. An incident “involving the Iranian aircraft that entered Yemeni airspace was not merely a dispute over a flight.” It “exposed the extent to which the war in Yemen has become intertwined with the confrontation between the United States and Iran, and raised an old question in a new form: Can Yemen remain outside any broader regional escalation”?

Read more

‘Brace yourself for the AI public relations blitz’

J.B. Branch at the Chicago Tribune

While “some AI products have proved fun or useful, Americans are increasingly suspicious of the technology as a whole,” says J.B. Branch. But the “tech bros see it as nothing more than a serious public relations problem. So get ready for the rehabilitation campaign.” Americans “shouldn’t buy that narrative,” as companies “cannot spend two decades building social media platforms that fuel misinformation, destabilize institutions and harm children, and then expect approval for a new technology that will hyperscale these problems.”

Read more

‘Trump’s DOJ is now targeting The New York Times for basic reporting’

Shirin Ali at Slate

Donald Trump is “angry with The New York Times again and has deployed his usual tactics, weaponizing his position of power to take the newspaper to court,” says Shirin Ali. Journalists “often use anonymous sources in order to report on sensitive information, as well as to protect the identities of sources, who often risk their jobs and safety.” But the “Trump administration, though, has been one of the most aggressive and antagonistic in U.S. history against journalists.”

Read more

]]> ‘Maui residents are trying to rebuild. Let them.’

Jonathan Helton at The Washington Post

Almost “three years after wildfires engulfed Lahaina, Hawaii, rebuilding continues to move at a glacial pace,” says Jonathan Helton. Not a “single business destroyed in the fires has been rebuilt, and just two commercial permits have been issued.” Some “well-meaning state and county land-use, zoning, permitting and historic-preservation laws — passed over decades — have caused reconstruction to move at a crawl.” Lawmakers have “tried to cut through the most damaging regulatory strictures with piecemeal waivers.”

Read more

‘Minneapolis residents don’t want police drones spying on us’

Meredith Aby, Sana Wazwaz and Michelle Rennie at The Minnesota Star Tribune

What “do you call an AI-powered drone in the hands of the government, with the power to be deployed upon complaints of any ‘suspicious person’ — a drone that records their data, and can be retained by our government”? say Meredith Aby, Sana Wazwaz and Michelle Rennie. It “sounds to us like the textbook definition of Orwellian surveillance — and it’s exactly what might happen in Minneapolis.” This is “not only politically naive but also tone deaf.”

Read more

‘Tackling the annoyance economy is an easy way to win voters’

Neale Mahoney and Chad Maisel at Newsweek

Democrats “running for president will woo voters with sweeping policy plans — on housing, health care, corruption and more,” say Neale Mahoney and Chad Maisel. Those “problems are real, and big solutions are desperately needed.” But “ambitious leaders are missing something hiding in plain sight: All the everyday hassles that steal our time and make life harder than it should be.” What “started with airlines and banks has metastasized into nearly every corner of daily life.”

Read more

‘The Supreme Court could eventually decide if Kalshi is just sports gambling’

Matt Stieb at Intelligencer

There is “good news for people who dislike the gambling-ification of seemingly everything in America: Kalshi could be in trouble,” says Matt Stieb. A federal judge “ruled against the leading prediction market, determining the State of New York has the authority to regulate sports betting on the website, even up to the point of banning it altogether.” Prohibition “would be a serious blow for Kalshi as it tries to expand amid the loose regulatory environment of the Trump administration.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-hawaii-maui-minneapolis-voters-kalshi N3KFycAGLgw4X8xEmjvWmc Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:32:36 +0000 Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:58:51 +0000 false false false

‘Maui residents are trying to rebuild. Let them.’

Jonathan Helton at The Washington Post

Almost “three years after wildfires engulfed Lahaina, Hawaii, rebuilding continues to move at a glacial pace,” says Jonathan Helton. Not a “single business destroyed in the fires has been rebuilt, and just two commercial permits have been issued.” Some “well-meaning state and county land-use, zoning, permitting and historic-preservation laws — passed over decades — have caused reconstruction to move at a crawl.” Lawmakers have “tried to cut through the most damaging regulatory strictures with piecemeal waivers.”

Read more

‘Minneapolis residents don’t want police drones spying on us’

Meredith Aby, Sana Wazwaz and Michelle Rennie at The Minnesota Star Tribune

What “do you call an AI-powered drone in the hands of the government, with the power to be deployed upon complaints of any ‘suspicious person’ — a drone that records their data, and can be retained by our government”? say Meredith Aby, Sana Wazwaz and Michelle Rennie. It “sounds to us like the textbook definition of Orwellian surveillance — and it’s exactly what might happen in Minneapolis.” This is “not only politically naive but also tone deaf.”

Read more

‘Tackling the annoyance economy is an easy way to win voters’

Neale Mahoney and Chad Maisel at Newsweek

Democrats “running for president will woo voters with sweeping policy plans — on housing, health care, corruption and more,” say Neale Mahoney and Chad Maisel. Those “problems are real, and big solutions are desperately needed.” But “ambitious leaders are missing something hiding in plain sight: All the everyday hassles that steal our time and make life harder than it should be.” What “started with airlines and banks has metastasized into nearly every corner of daily life.”

Read more

‘The Supreme Court could eventually decide if Kalshi is just sports gambling’

Matt Stieb at Intelligencer

There is “good news for people who dislike the gambling-ification of seemingly everything in America: Kalshi could be in trouble,” says Matt Stieb. A federal judge “ruled against the leading prediction market, determining the State of New York has the authority to regulate sports betting on the website, even up to the point of banning it altogether.” Prohibition “would be a serious blow for Kalshi as it tries to expand amid the loose regulatory environment of the Trump administration.”

Read more

]]> ‘The importance of stemming campus suicides’

The Boston Globe editorial board

“Suicide is complex,” and “teenagers and young adults nationwide have struggled with mental health, although some data suggest that’s improving,” says The Boston Globe editorial board. It “wouldn’t be appropriate to blame an institution” like a university for student deaths. But “one death of a student by suicide is too many,” and it “should serve as a reminder for all colleges to take student mental health seriously.” Colleges should be “running campaigns to destigmatize mental healthcare.”

Read more

‘Public agencies’ documents have moved to the chat. The law should, too.’

Jamie Nixon at The Seattle Times

When “disclosure exposes a problem, the solution is better conduct, not a more disposable communication system,” says Jamie Dixon. Public records officers “should not be treated as pests for producing records the public has a right to see.” Journalists “should not have to rely on lucky timing to learn how public power is exercised,” and government agencies “should not conduct substantive public business in systems designed to erase evidence before the public can ask for it.”

Read more

‘Lindsey Graham’s hawkish ideology leaves a legacy of destruction’

Moustafa Bayoumi at The Guardian

The “sudden death over the weekend of the South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is predictably inspiring a slew of tributes,” says Moustafa Bayoumi. But “through this thick, bipartisan forest of remembrances, however, lies Graham’s concrete legacy.” Nowhere has Graham’s “legacy been more consequential than in his constant push for a hawkish U.S. foreign policy.” His “desire to project U.S. and Israeli military might across the world, regardless of the cost, is an abject political and ethical failure.”

Read more

‘Mamdani’s socialism has no answer for New York homelessness’

Stephen Eide at UnHerd

Is there a “socialist way to clean up homeless encampments?” asks Stephen Eide. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has “done this through promising and delivering a rent freeze and engaging in class warfare, all of which he thinks plays to his electoral strengths.” But “no politician can control the agenda forever.” New Yorkers “don’t want to wait decades for a solution to a problem cops and sanitation workers could clean up in hours.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-college-suicide-documents-lindsey-graham-mamdani DBgRNUQuh9gLUNriWGmnTK Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:42:10 +0000 false false false

‘The importance of stemming campus suicides’

The Boston Globe editorial board

“Suicide is complex,” and “teenagers and young adults nationwide have struggled with mental health, although some data suggest that’s improving,” says The Boston Globe editorial board. It “wouldn’t be appropriate to blame an institution” like a university for student deaths. But “one death of a student by suicide is too many,” and it “should serve as a reminder for all colleges to take student mental health seriously.” Colleges should be “running campaigns to destigmatize mental healthcare.”

Read more

‘Public agencies’ documents have moved to the chat. The law should, too.’

Jamie Nixon at The Seattle Times

When “disclosure exposes a problem, the solution is better conduct, not a more disposable communication system,” says Jamie Dixon. Public records officers “should not be treated as pests for producing records the public has a right to see.” Journalists “should not have to rely on lucky timing to learn how public power is exercised,” and government agencies “should not conduct substantive public business in systems designed to erase evidence before the public can ask for it.”

Read more

‘Lindsey Graham’s hawkish ideology leaves a legacy of destruction’

Moustafa Bayoumi at The Guardian

The “sudden death over the weekend of the South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is predictably inspiring a slew of tributes,” says Moustafa Bayoumi. But “through this thick, bipartisan forest of remembrances, however, lies Graham’s concrete legacy.” Nowhere has Graham’s “legacy been more consequential than in his constant push for a hawkish U.S. foreign policy.” His “desire to project U.S. and Israeli military might across the world, regardless of the cost, is an abject political and ethical failure.”

Read more

‘Mamdani’s socialism has no answer for New York homelessness’

Stephen Eide at UnHerd

Is there a “socialist way to clean up homeless encampments?” asks Stephen Eide. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has “done this through promising and delivering a rent freeze and engaging in class warfare, all of which he thinks plays to his electoral strengths.” But “no politician can control the agenda forever.” New Yorkers “don’t want to wait decades for a solution to a problem cops and sanitation workers could clean up in hours.”

Read more

]]> ‘What’s really going on with mental health’

John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times

One of the “biggest stories of the past decade has been worsening mental health among young adults,” says John Burn-Murdoch. The “rise in young people’s psychological distress is certainly real — it shows up most unambiguously and alarmingly in sharply rising rates of hospitalization.” The “shift in how people conceptualize mental health could be seen as a positive,” but if it is “happening more among some groups than others, it will distort our sense of what is really getting worse.”

Read more

‘Sure, e-bikes seem fun. Until you’re on my operating table.’

Blake Taylor at USA Today

What is “missing from the debates surrounding e-bike freedoms and regulation is the focus on the injuries that happen when youths crash their bikes,” says Blake Taylor. If kids “could see the internal injuries and what happens in my operating room, and in many trauma centers across the country, and what it takes to save these lives or prevent devastating disabilities, maybe they would rethink their priorities.” These “e-bike injuries are not like those associated with traditional bikes.”

Read more

‘Dragging the Constitution into every political fight will kill it’

Clive Crook at Bloomberg

The United States Constitution has “endured, it has adapted and it has been the foundation for unsurpassed prosperity and material advance,” says Clive Crook. But “disagreements over policy are reflexively pitched as arguments about constitutional foundations,” and “as a result, rhetoric escalates and polarization intensifies.” Bringing the Constitution “into every political dispute also threatens the constitutional order — by framing the courts as unaccountable political players and lowering the electorate’s respect for their role.”

Read more

‘Is democracy a joke? Count Binface says no.’

Scott Simon at NPR

The U.K. Reform Party’s Nigel Farage “does have one opponent who’s got a household name: Count Binface,” says Scott Simon. Count Binface has “already run and lost” previously. But he is “campaigning on hard, specific pledges,” and his “odds of being elected should not be discounted.” A decade ago, Britons “voted to name a polar research vehicle Boaty McBoatface,” so there is “some history of the British recognizing the value of a good laugh, perhaps especially in politics.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-mental-health-e-bikes-constitution-binface ZdYDK8S75TrEKXiQiXMdgJ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:40:52 +0000 Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:48:46 +0000 false false false

‘What’s really going on with mental health’

John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times

One of the “biggest stories of the past decade has been worsening mental health among young adults,” says John Burn-Murdoch. The “rise in young people’s psychological distress is certainly real — it shows up most unambiguously and alarmingly in sharply rising rates of hospitalization.” The “shift in how people conceptualize mental health could be seen as a positive,” but if it is “happening more among some groups than others, it will distort our sense of what is really getting worse.”

Read more

‘Sure, e-bikes seem fun. Until you’re on my operating table.’

Blake Taylor at USA Today

What is “missing from the debates surrounding e-bike freedoms and regulation is the focus on the injuries that happen when youths crash their bikes,” says Blake Taylor. If kids “could see the internal injuries and what happens in my operating room, and in many trauma centers across the country, and what it takes to save these lives or prevent devastating disabilities, maybe they would rethink their priorities.” These “e-bike injuries are not like those associated with traditional bikes.”

Read more

‘Dragging the Constitution into every political fight will kill it’

Clive Crook at Bloomberg

The United States Constitution has “endured, it has adapted and it has been the foundation for unsurpassed prosperity and material advance,” says Clive Crook. But “disagreements over policy are reflexively pitched as arguments about constitutional foundations,” and “as a result, rhetoric escalates and polarization intensifies.” Bringing the Constitution “into every political dispute also threatens the constitutional order — by framing the courts as unaccountable political players and lowering the electorate’s respect for their role.”

Read more

‘Is democracy a joke? Count Binface says no.’

Scott Simon at NPR

The U.K. Reform Party’s Nigel Farage “does have one opponent who’s got a household name: Count Binface,” says Scott Simon. Count Binface has “already run and lost” previously. But he is “campaigning on hard, specific pledges,” and his “odds of being elected should not be discounted.” A decade ago, Britons “voted to name a polar research vehicle Boaty McBoatface,” so there is “some history of the British recognizing the value of a good laugh, perhaps especially in politics.”

Read more

]]> ‘The dangerous myth of flexibility’

David Weil at The American Prospect

Schedule flexibility has become the “lynchpin of a well-traveled myth that corporations have spun to their employees, policymakers and the public,” says David Weil. But with AI being “explored as a replacement for many white-collar jobs, and the gig work model continuing its global expansion into new sectors like healthcare, information technology, staffing, hospitality and childcare, the flexibility myth now threatens the hard-won rights and protections afforded to tens of millions of working people.” While companies like “Uber and Lyft insist” that flexibility benefits their drivers, it actually “benefits Uber and Lyft.”

Read more

‘Republicans lean into anti-Asian racism ahead of midterms’

Ja’han Jones at MS NOW

Some conservatives are “resorting to anti-Asian racism and anti-Chinese xenophobia as the Republican Party faces a potential shellacking in this year’s midterms,” says Ja’han Jones. The attacks “underscore the exploitative posture that some in the GOP have taken toward Asian Americans.” Polls have “shown Americans broadly oppose President Donald Trump and the GOP’s agenda,” so it “seems the party is leaning into voter suppression gambits and overt racism as it tries to maintain power.”

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‘Will Iraq’s new prime minister really take on corruption?’

Mina Al-Oraibi at Foreign Policy

Corruption has “continued to grow” in Iraq, and even “wide-ranging arrests do not represent a majority of those who have siphoned money from the Iraqi state,” says Mina Al-Oraibi. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is “personally overseeing the anti-corruption cases” and “needs to do this in part because he remains a weak candidate.” But a “wide-ranging and impartial effort to eliminate all corruption would take time,” and al-Zaidi has been in office for “less than two months.”

Read more

‘The tech bro-ification of marketing’

Miranda Shanahan at Time

The “tech bro-ification of marketing is underway,” says Miranda Shanahan. Beneath this “trend lies a broader pattern around how work is named, coded and valued.” The “marketing industry is a broad church, but decades of cultural shorthand have flattened it into something quite specific.” The “first inkling of recalibration came when tech bros suddenly started emphasizing the importance of taste.” It “might not seem that deep, but marketing’s rebrand is part of a bigger pattern.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-job-flexibility-republicans-iraq-tech o4E62WumN3KS9haRj6S45h Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:15:39 +0000 Fri, 10 Jul 2026 17:43:28 +0000 false false false

‘The dangerous myth of flexibility’

David Weil at The American Prospect

Schedule flexibility has become the “lynchpin of a well-traveled myth that corporations have spun to their employees, policymakers and the public,” says David Weil. But with AI being “explored as a replacement for many white-collar jobs, and the gig work model continuing its global expansion into new sectors like healthcare, information technology, staffing, hospitality and childcare, the flexibility myth now threatens the hard-won rights and protections afforded to tens of millions of working people.” While companies like “Uber and Lyft insist” that flexibility benefits their drivers, it actually “benefits Uber and Lyft.”

Read more

‘Republicans lean into anti-Asian racism ahead of midterms’

Ja’han Jones at MS NOW

Some conservatives are “resorting to anti-Asian racism and anti-Chinese xenophobia as the Republican Party faces a potential shellacking in this year’s midterms,” says Ja’han Jones. The attacks “underscore the exploitative posture that some in the GOP have taken toward Asian Americans.” Polls have “shown Americans broadly oppose President Donald Trump and the GOP’s agenda,” so it “seems the party is leaning into voter suppression gambits and overt racism as it tries to maintain power.”

Read more

‘Will Iraq’s new prime minister really take on corruption?’

Mina Al-Oraibi at Foreign Policy

Corruption has “continued to grow” in Iraq, and even “wide-ranging arrests do not represent a majority of those who have siphoned money from the Iraqi state,” says Mina Al-Oraibi. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is “personally overseeing the anti-corruption cases” and “needs to do this in part because he remains a weak candidate.” But a “wide-ranging and impartial effort to eliminate all corruption would take time,” and al-Zaidi has been in office for “less than two months.”

Read more

‘The tech bro-ification of marketing’

Miranda Shanahan at Time

The “tech bro-ification of marketing is underway,” says Miranda Shanahan. Beneath this “trend lies a broader pattern around how work is named, coded and valued.” The “marketing industry is a broad church, but decades of cultural shorthand have flattened it into something quite specific.” The “first inkling of recalibration came when tech bros suddenly started emphasizing the importance of taste.” It “might not seem that deep, but marketing’s rebrand is part of a bigger pattern.”

Read more

]]> ‘What a viral photo of white supremacists on the Metro reveals’

Theodore R. Johnson at The Washington Post

A photo of “white supremacist group Patriot Front” members inside a “packed Metro subway car” in Washington, D.C., standing alongside a “young Black woman, perfectly alone,” was “evoking imagery from the civil rights era on the day the country marked its 250th anniversary,” says Theodore R. Johnson. Above ground, there were “celebrations of American exceptionalism; beneath the surface, though, there was evidence of a country regressing — or one that hasn’t changed as much as it thought.”

Read more

‘Who wants to tax a billionaire?’

Soumaya Keynes at the Financial Times

Californians will “vote on a 5% tax on billionaires’ wealth,” and in “theory this is a marvelous opportunity for rich economic discussion,” says Soumaya Keynes. But some “worry the choice will be reduced to a grim question: Are you a jealous wealth-basher or a shameless shill for the rich?” Some billionaires themselves are “keeping quiet, perhaps hoping that if California’s version passes, it will at least quieten the demands for them to pay their fair share.”

Read more

‘The World Cup is exposing the contradictions of national identity’

Mohamad Elmasry at Al Jazeera

The 2026 World Cup has “demonstrated, perhaps as clearly as any global event can, that modern national identity is complex, contested and far from straightforward,” says Mohamad Elmasry. Many of the “players on the national teams” come “from immigrant families.” In an “era of increasingly exclusionary nationalist politics in North America and Europe, some of the countries engaged in the most intense debates about national identity are being represented on the world’s biggest sporting stage by multicultural teams.”

Read more

‘How Lebanon continues to confound the US’

Geoffrey Aronson at The American Conservative

The “recent memorandum of understanding between Israel and Lebanon is not the first time the U.S. has placed itself at the center of Lebanese affairs,” says Geoffrey Aronson. These “efforts attest to Lebanon’s outsized ability to engage Washington at the highest level, and highlight the at best limited, short-term effectiveness of that involvement.” Hezbollah’s “expansive role in Lebanon today reflects the political and military mobilization of Lebanon’s historically underserved Shia community, especially in the south.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-photo-washington-billionaires-world-cup-lebanon prXczsPeGKVUnLZWfm6vJn Thu, 09 Jul 2026 18:29:12 +0000 Thu, 09 Jul 2026 21:10:49 +0000 false false false

‘What a viral photo of white supremacists on the Metro reveals’

Theodore R. Johnson at The Washington Post

A photo of “white supremacist group Patriot Front” members inside a “packed Metro subway car” in Washington, D.C., standing alongside a “young Black woman, perfectly alone,” was “evoking imagery from the civil rights era on the day the country marked its 250th anniversary,” says Theodore R. Johnson. Above ground, there were “celebrations of American exceptionalism; beneath the surface, though, there was evidence of a country regressing — or one that hasn’t changed as much as it thought.”

Read more

‘Who wants to tax a billionaire?’

Soumaya Keynes at the Financial Times

Californians will “vote on a 5% tax on billionaires’ wealth,” and in “theory this is a marvelous opportunity for rich economic discussion,” says Soumaya Keynes. But some “worry the choice will be reduced to a grim question: Are you a jealous wealth-basher or a shameless shill for the rich?” Some billionaires themselves are “keeping quiet, perhaps hoping that if California’s version passes, it will at least quieten the demands for them to pay their fair share.”

Read more

‘The World Cup is exposing the contradictions of national identity’

Mohamad Elmasry at Al Jazeera

The 2026 World Cup has “demonstrated, perhaps as clearly as any global event can, that modern national identity is complex, contested and far from straightforward,” says Mohamad Elmasry. Many of the “players on the national teams” come “from immigrant families.” In an “era of increasingly exclusionary nationalist politics in North America and Europe, some of the countries engaged in the most intense debates about national identity are being represented on the world’s biggest sporting stage by multicultural teams.”

Read more

‘How Lebanon continues to confound the US’

Geoffrey Aronson at The American Conservative

The “recent memorandum of understanding between Israel and Lebanon is not the first time the U.S. has placed itself at the center of Lebanese affairs,” says Geoffrey Aronson. These “efforts attest to Lebanon’s outsized ability to engage Washington at the highest level, and highlight the at best limited, short-term effectiveness of that involvement.” Hezbollah’s “expansive role in Lebanon today reflects the political and military mobilization of Lebanon’s historically underserved Shia community, especially in the south.”

Read more

]]> ‘The end of reading is here’

Rose Horowitch at The Atlantic

“Americans, once members of a proudly literate society, read much less than they used to,” says Rose Horowitch. Even “demographics that traditionally read the most — retirees, women and college graduates — have seen a collapse,” and the “books that people do read are simpler than they used to be.” People are “losing the higher-order abilities of comprehension.” America “isn’t illiterate. It’s postliterate.” The “people who make a living from words are not the only ones who lose out in a postliterate age.”

Read more

‘A tax too far: Don’t punish immigrants sending money to family’

Marcos Cruz at The Hill

Immigrants “want to know how to safely transfer money to relatives” overseas, as these remittances “create a massive flow of capital out of wealthy nations and into lower- and middle-income countries,” says Marcos Cruz. This year, a “new 1% excise tax was added on money sent abroad,” and “although a 1% tax appears small when expressed as a decimal, its implications are strategic.” By “taxing remittances and lowering incomes,” Washington will have “worsened the root cause of the immigration problem.”

Read more

‘The US had the biggest opportunity in the history of American soccer. They wasted it.’

Alexander Abnos at The Guardian

What do people think “about what the U.S. produced on Monday night during their 4-1 defeat against Belgium?” says Alexander Abnos. What “inspiration was there to be found in the team’s disjointed moves forward, of the missed defensive assignments, of the lack of poise the team played with?” Millions were “tuning in on Monday night for their first U.S. men’s national team experience,” and “their first impression was a side that was not up to the task.”

Read more

‘Stop mourning the old NATO. Build the new one.’

Galip Dalay at Time

This “must be the moment Europe stops mourning the alliance it once knew and begins building the one it actually needs,” says Galip Dalay. Europe should “strengthen the collective weight of European NATO members, not the European Union members or EU as an institution alone, within the alliance.” Europe “needs a continent-wide security architecture” and an “honest reckoning with an uncomfortable truth: any post-American security framework cannot simply replicate the existing NATO-centric order.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-reading-immigrants-soccer-nato Q9SEaBs68EyxWYkgisc37e Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:18:26 +0000 Wed, 08 Jul 2026 20:46:36 +0000 false false false

‘The end of reading is here’

Rose Horowitch at The Atlantic

“Americans, once members of a proudly literate society, read much less than they used to,” says Rose Horowitch. Even “demographics that traditionally read the most — retirees, women and college graduates — have seen a collapse,” and the “books that people do read are simpler than they used to be.” People are “losing the higher-order abilities of comprehension.” America “isn’t illiterate. It’s postliterate.” The “people who make a living from words are not the only ones who lose out in a postliterate age.”

Read more

‘A tax too far: Don’t punish immigrants sending money to family’

Marcos Cruz at The Hill

Immigrants “want to know how to safely transfer money to relatives” overseas, as these remittances “create a massive flow of capital out of wealthy nations and into lower- and middle-income countries,” says Marcos Cruz. This year, a “new 1% excise tax was added on money sent abroad,” and “although a 1% tax appears small when expressed as a decimal, its implications are strategic.” By “taxing remittances and lowering incomes,” Washington will have “worsened the root cause of the immigration problem.”

Read more

‘The US had the biggest opportunity in the history of American soccer. They wasted it.’

Alexander Abnos at The Guardian

What do people think “about what the U.S. produced on Monday night during their 4-1 defeat against Belgium?” says Alexander Abnos. What “inspiration was there to be found in the team’s disjointed moves forward, of the missed defensive assignments, of the lack of poise the team played with?” Millions were “tuning in on Monday night for their first U.S. men’s national team experience,” and “their first impression was a side that was not up to the task.”

Read more

‘Stop mourning the old NATO. Build the new one.’

Galip Dalay at Time

This “must be the moment Europe stops mourning the alliance it once knew and begins building the one it actually needs,” says Galip Dalay. Europe should “strengthen the collective weight of European NATO members, not the European Union members or EU as an institution alone, within the alliance.” Europe “needs a continent-wide security architecture” and an “honest reckoning with an uncomfortable truth: any post-American security framework cannot simply replicate the existing NATO-centric order.”

Read more

]]> ‘When law enforcement takes on immigration, our safety is the cost’

Amy L. Solomon at USA Today

The White House is “using federal money and incentives to push state and local agencies more deeply into immigration enforcement,” says Amy L. Solomon. The “question is not whether immigration laws should be enforced, but whether federal dollars are now driving police, sheriffs, prosecutors and other justice agencies toward a mission that could pull them away from their core responsibilities: preventing crime, solving serious cases, protecting victims and maintaining public trust.” This is a “distortion of mission.”

Read more

‘Lessons from the Graham Platner disaster’

Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times

Graham Platner’s Senate campaign has “become a shameful catastrophe,” says Michelle Goldberg. What’s “left — besides finding a Democrat to run in his place — is figuring out what, if anything, can be learned.” Platner’s campaign “represented an electoral insurgency against the Democratic Party; now, there are going to be furious recriminations against those who launched it.” Democrats “went out on a limb for him, and he had every reason to know it was going to be sawed off.”

Read more

‘Sam Altman offers a Trojan Horse to American taxpayers’

Gautam Mukunda at Bloomberg

Sam Altman believes “giving the government a 5% stake in the company he runs, OpenAI, is the best way to ensure that Americans shared in the promised bounty from artificial intelligence,” says Gautam Mukunda. But the White House “should organize a group trip to see Christopher Nolan’s new movie ‘The Odyssey,’ whose opening act is the most famous gift in Western literature: a giant wooden horse, wheeled through the gates of Troy.” The “lesson translates. Beware of CEOs bearing gifts.”

Read more

‘Is the FCC’s investigation having a chilling effect on “The View”?’

Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute

Maybe “intimidation and threats work after all — even when it comes to important topics like a free press,” says Tom Jones. “Whether or not the show qualifies as a news program, the FCC investigation appears to have had a chilling effect on ‘The View,’” even as “newscasts, news interviews, news documentaries and on-the-spot news coverage are exempt from the equal-time rule.” But the “bar for having a political candidate on the show is high.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-police-immigration-platner-ai-fcc 85rstYxxeXcyM87wdGpQGe Tue, 07 Jul 2026 17:04:59 +0000 Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:40:15 +0000 false false false

‘When law enforcement takes on immigration, our safety is the cost’

Amy L. Solomon at USA Today

The White House is “using federal money and incentives to push state and local agencies more deeply into immigration enforcement,” says Amy L. Solomon. The “question is not whether immigration laws should be enforced, but whether federal dollars are now driving police, sheriffs, prosecutors and other justice agencies toward a mission that could pull them away from their core responsibilities: preventing crime, solving serious cases, protecting victims and maintaining public trust.” This is a “distortion of mission.”

Read more

‘Lessons from the Graham Platner disaster’

Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times

Graham Platner’s Senate campaign has “become a shameful catastrophe,” says Michelle Goldberg. What’s “left — besides finding a Democrat to run in his place — is figuring out what, if anything, can be learned.” Platner’s campaign “represented an electoral insurgency against the Democratic Party; now, there are going to be furious recriminations against those who launched it.” Democrats “went out on a limb for him, and he had every reason to know it was going to be sawed off.”

Read more

‘Sam Altman offers a Trojan Horse to American taxpayers’

Gautam Mukunda at Bloomberg

Sam Altman believes “giving the government a 5% stake in the company he runs, OpenAI, is the best way to ensure that Americans shared in the promised bounty from artificial intelligence,” says Gautam Mukunda. But the White House “should organize a group trip to see Christopher Nolan’s new movie ‘The Odyssey,’ whose opening act is the most famous gift in Western literature: a giant wooden horse, wheeled through the gates of Troy.” The “lesson translates. Beware of CEOs bearing gifts.”

Read more

‘Is the FCC’s investigation having a chilling effect on “The View”?’

Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute

Maybe “intimidation and threats work after all — even when it comes to important topics like a free press,” says Tom Jones. “Whether or not the show qualifies as a news program, the FCC investigation appears to have had a chilling effect on ‘The View,’” even as “newscasts, news interviews, news documentaries and on-the-spot news coverage are exempt from the equal-time rule.” But the “bar for having a political candidate on the show is high.”

Read more

]]> ‘Telling time is a complicated business’

Nishant Sahdev at The Wall Street Journal

Modern economies “depend on everyone not only knowing the correct time but agreeing to it,” says Nishant Sahdev. About 450 atomic clocks are “continuously compared and averaged into a single international standard known as Coordinated Universal Time,” a “surprisingly thin thread on which much of the global economy depends.” A “difference of a fraction of a second can cause a breakdown,” and the “private sector could move faster by treating precise time as an essential service that needs protection.”

Read more

‘“Dignity” is a poor excuse for blocking press access to state executions’

Austin Sarat at The Hill

Indiana law says that the press has “no right to be present when the state carries out executions,” and the state “defends its limitations on access to executions by advancing the dignity argument,” says Austin Sarat. But there is “something odd about using the word ‘dignity’ to describe what happens when the state kills one of its citizens, and about allowing the state that seeks to do that deed to speak for a condemned person.”

Read more

‘The Founding Father you’ve probably never heard of’

Abdallah Fayyad at The Boston Globe

Americans “all know the broad strokes of the story of America’s founding,” says Abdallah Fayyad. But “despite the well-documented record of the American Revolution, one of the Founders — arguably one of the most influential — has been almost lost to history.” James Wilson was a Scottish immigrant who “quickly became one of the most learned and successful men of his time, advocating for radical ideas about democracy and political equality,” and he “helped shape America’s founding principles.”

Read more

‘S.F.’s recovery is missing one of the hardest things to bring back’

Allison Arieff at the San Francisco Chronicle

Everyone “thinks that San Francisco was perfect the day they arrived,” but many “can’t help but be nostalgic for a time when the arts felt core to the identity of the city,” says Allison Arieff. San Francisco “may be flush with private capital, but the culture of tech is largely one of metrics and results; few in this community seem inclined to support something with a hard-to-measure return on investment,” and “federal funding has, of course, all but dried up.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-time-execution-founding-fathers-art tHKkwvg8BELDAWqmBrnzkd Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:40:13 +0000 Mon, 06 Jul 2026 21:14:39 +0000 false false false

‘Telling time is a complicated business’

Nishant Sahdev at The Wall Street Journal

Modern economies “depend on everyone not only knowing the correct time but agreeing to it,” says Nishant Sahdev. About 450 atomic clocks are “continuously compared and averaged into a single international standard known as Coordinated Universal Time,” a “surprisingly thin thread on which much of the global economy depends.” A “difference of a fraction of a second can cause a breakdown,” and the “private sector could move faster by treating precise time as an essential service that needs protection.”

Read more

‘“Dignity” is a poor excuse for blocking press access to state executions’

Austin Sarat at The Hill

Indiana law says that the press has “no right to be present when the state carries out executions,” and the state “defends its limitations on access to executions by advancing the dignity argument,” says Austin Sarat. But there is “something odd about using the word ‘dignity’ to describe what happens when the state kills one of its citizens, and about allowing the state that seeks to do that deed to speak for a condemned person.”

Read more

‘The Founding Father you’ve probably never heard of’

Abdallah Fayyad at The Boston Globe

Americans “all know the broad strokes of the story of America’s founding,” says Abdallah Fayyad. But “despite the well-documented record of the American Revolution, one of the Founders — arguably one of the most influential — has been almost lost to history.” James Wilson was a Scottish immigrant who “quickly became one of the most learned and successful men of his time, advocating for radical ideas about democracy and political equality,” and he “helped shape America’s founding principles.”

Read more

‘S.F.’s recovery is missing one of the hardest things to bring back’

Allison Arieff at the San Francisco Chronicle

Everyone “thinks that San Francisco was perfect the day they arrived,” but many “can’t help but be nostalgic for a time when the arts felt core to the identity of the city,” says Allison Arieff. San Francisco “may be flush with private capital, but the culture of tech is largely one of metrics and results; few in this community seem inclined to support something with a hard-to-measure return on investment,” and “federal funding has, of course, all but dried up.”

Read more

]]> ‘The vultures arrived before the rescue teams’

Gisela Salim-Peyer at The Atlantic

Following two earthquakes, Venezuela’s “man-made disasters didn’t take long to exacerbate the natural one,” says Gisela Salim-Peyer. For “28 years and counting, Venezuela’s rulers have stolen or squandered much of the oil revenue of the most oil-rich country in the world” as “oligarchs pocketed the petrodollars.” The “humanitarian consequences of this wastefulness were well documented,” but “now they have acquired a fresh urgency.” In the “crucial first 24 hours following the quakes, the government response was practically nonexistent.”

Read more

‘250 years later, we must recommit to the ideals in the Declaration of Independence’

Willie Wilson at the Chicago Tribune

As Americans “celebrate 250 years of representative democracy, independence and freedom, consider recommitting to the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence,” says Willie Wilson. The declaration was “written by imperfect men. However, the message of freedom has endured and inspired others around the world.” Within, there are “suggestions to strengthen our democracy.” Congress “should amend the Constitution to establish for all Americans an affirmative right to vote,” and “every citizen should read the Declaration of Independence.”

Read more

‘Iran has zero chance of honoring the MOU’

Mike Evans at The Jerusalem Post

There are “people in Washington who still believe the Iranian regime can be persuaded to change through diplomacy,” says Mike Evans. They “believe another agreement,” another version of the Memorandum of Understanding or “another round of negotiations will somehow convince the ayatollahs to abandon their nuclear ambitions.” But Iran has “repeatedly shown that it views negotiations as a strategic tool.” Every “concession allows Tehran to strengthen its military, rebuild its economy and continue pursuing the very objectives it promised to abandon.”

Read more

‘How Trump plans to crush fast food workers’

Timothy Noah at The New Republic

Corporate America has “systematically shed low-wage workers, either by offshoring them, contracting out their work or designating them as independent contractors,” says Timothy Noah. The “consumer welfare standard is on its way out, but that transition is not happening quickly.” Today “fast food employees are mostly grown-ups, often with families, and their best recourse, if they can’t make ends meet, is to go on welfare.” President Donald Trump’s “proposed joint-employer rule will impoverish these workers even more.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-venezuela-earthquake-democracy-iran-trump U7LYsG6cn9m3NHYRUvx9UN Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:24:19 +0000 Thu, 02 Jul 2026 20:54:15 +0000 false false false

‘The vultures arrived before the rescue teams’

Gisela Salim-Peyer at The Atlantic

Following two earthquakes, Venezuela’s “man-made disasters didn’t take long to exacerbate the natural one,” says Gisela Salim-Peyer. For “28 years and counting, Venezuela’s rulers have stolen or squandered much of the oil revenue of the most oil-rich country in the world” as “oligarchs pocketed the petrodollars.” The “humanitarian consequences of this wastefulness were well documented,” but “now they have acquired a fresh urgency.” In the “crucial first 24 hours following the quakes, the government response was practically nonexistent.”

Read more

‘250 years later, we must recommit to the ideals in the Declaration of Independence’

Willie Wilson at the Chicago Tribune

As Americans “celebrate 250 years of representative democracy, independence and freedom, consider recommitting to the ideals found in the Declaration of Independence,” says Willie Wilson. The declaration was “written by imperfect men. However, the message of freedom has endured and inspired others around the world.” Within, there are “suggestions to strengthen our democracy.” Congress “should amend the Constitution to establish for all Americans an affirmative right to vote,” and “every citizen should read the Declaration of Independence.”

Read more

‘Iran has zero chance of honoring the MOU’

Mike Evans at The Jerusalem Post

There are “people in Washington who still believe the Iranian regime can be persuaded to change through diplomacy,” says Mike Evans. They “believe another agreement,” another version of the Memorandum of Understanding or “another round of negotiations will somehow convince the ayatollahs to abandon their nuclear ambitions.” But Iran has “repeatedly shown that it views negotiations as a strategic tool.” Every “concession allows Tehran to strengthen its military, rebuild its economy and continue pursuing the very objectives it promised to abandon.”

Read more

‘How Trump plans to crush fast food workers’

Timothy Noah at The New Republic

Corporate America has “systematically shed low-wage workers, either by offshoring them, contracting out their work or designating them as independent contractors,” says Timothy Noah. The “consumer welfare standard is on its way out, but that transition is not happening quickly.” Today “fast food employees are mostly grown-ups, often with families, and their best recourse, if they can’t make ends meet, is to go on welfare.” President Donald Trump’s “proposed joint-employer rule will impoverish these workers even more.”

Read more

]]> ‘Most people are thinking about aging all wrong’

Leana S. Wen at The Washington Post

Many people “believe that aging is synonymous with steadily losing cognitive and physical abilities,” but a recent study “offers a far more optimistic picture: Nearly half of older adults actually improve in later life,” says Leana S. Wen. A “strong predictor of such improvement is something everyone has control over: their own beliefs about aging.” Someone who “believes their best years are still ahead of them is more likely to engage in health-promoting behaviors.”

Read more

‘Europe’s big bewildering AC debate’

Chas Danner at Intelligencer

Europe’s heat wave is “finally ending after the extreme weather broke temperature records and upended daily life for nearly two weeks across the continent,” says Chas Danner. While “you’d think Europe’s governments and people would be rushing to fully integrate ACs into their cooling arsenal, that’s no simple task for a variety of reasons.” The “latest heat wave has fueled a raging political debate, not to mention a feeding frenzy by bewildered critics here in the U.S.”

Read more

‘India should stop panicking about Trump’

C. Raja Mohan at Foreign Policy

India’s “post-Cold War ties with the United States have been pronounced to be in crisis with remarkable regularity,” says C. Raja Mohan. Donald Trump has “created a sense in New Delhi that the relationship is now at a crossroads.” The “mood is in stark contrast to 2024, when Indian public opinion was broadly rooting for Trump’s return.” But even as “India’s irritation with Trump has grown, it has gone out of its way to deepen engagement with the U.S. government.”

Read more

‘Undoing Stalin’s crime: Romania and Moldova should reunite’

John Gustavsson at the National Review

Romania has “adopted a bill authorizing its government to begin talks with neighboring Moldova with the aim of unifying the two countries,” and “while unification would of course require consent from both countries, there are good reasons for the West to support such a move,” says John Gustavsson. “Like Romania already is, unification would embed Moldova in the West.” While Moldova “has made progress in recent years, it is a small, poor country incessantly targeted by Russian information warfare.”

Read more

]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-aging-europe-india-romania js5WF2LzMuMUn9M8KkT6PB Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:55:24 +0000 false false false

‘Most people are thinking about aging all wrong’

Leana S. Wen at The Washington Post

Many people “believe that aging is synonymous with steadily losing cognitive and physical abilities,” but a recent study “offers a far more optimistic picture: Nearly half of older adults actually improve in later life,” says Leana S. Wen. A “strong predictor of such improvement is something everyone has control over: their own beliefs about aging.” Someone who “believes their best years are still ahead of them is more likely to engage in health-promoting behaviors.”

Read more

‘Europe’s big bewildering AC debate’

Chas Danner at Intelligencer

Europe’s heat wave is “finally ending after the extreme weather broke temperature records and upended daily life for nearly two weeks across the continent,” says Chas Danner. While “you’d think Europe’s governments and people would be rushing to fully integrate ACs into their cooling arsenal, that’s no simple task for a variety of reasons.” The “latest heat wave has fueled a raging political debate, not to mention a feeding frenzy by bewildered critics here in the U.S.”

Read more

‘India should stop panicking about Trump’

C. Raja Mohan at Foreign Policy

India’s “post-Cold War ties with the United States have been pronounced to be in crisis with remarkable regularity,” says C. Raja Mohan. Donald Trump has “created a sense in New Delhi that the relationship is now at a crossroads.” The “mood is in stark contrast to 2024, when Indian public opinion was broadly rooting for Trump’s return.” But even as “India’s irritation with Trump has grown, it has gone out of its way to deepen engagement with the U.S. government.”

Read more

‘Undoing Stalin’s crime: Romania and Moldova should reunite’

John Gustavsson at the National Review

Romania has “adopted a bill authorizing its government to begin talks with neighboring Moldova with the aim of unifying the two countries,” and “while unification would of course require consent from both countries, there are good reasons for the West to support such a move,” says John Gustavsson. “Like Romania already is, unification would embed Moldova in the West.” While Moldova “has made progress in recent years, it is a small, poor country incessantly targeted by Russian information warfare.”

Read more

]]> ‘The case against fireworks’

Char Miller at Time

“This year’s Fourth of July fireworks promise to be especially explosive,” but they have “negative consequences for our environment and our health,” says Char Miller. Climate change is “making landscapes more vulnerable to fire,” and fireworks also “pose other life-threatening challenges.” They “can degrade air quality for hours or even days.” For “people with asthma, cardiovascular disease, or other respiratory conditions, the toxic air presents genuine health risks.” Drone displays “are an innovative alternative with far fewer risks.”

Read more

‘Assailed by right and left, the Peace Corps continues to make an apolitical difference’

Jonathan Zimmerman at The Philadelphia Inquirer

Republicans have “proposed to eliminate funding for the Peace Corps,” but the organization “has also been the target of left-wing attacks,” says Jonathan Zimmerman. Neither side “believes that Americans can be a force for good in the world,” and that is “why the Peace Corps matters.” It is “based on the simple proposition that bringing different people together can help them thrive. And it’s a standing rebuke to cynics on the right and the left.”

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‘Why the Arab League could not stop Israel’s genocide’

Rami G. Khouri at Al Jazeera

“Arabs are perplexed by why their governments and the Arab League have been so docile in the face of the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” says Rami G. Khouri. But Arab states “have never been able to harness their natural, human and geographic resources to become powerful, confident states that are not constantly manipulated.” They “rely heavily on non-Arab powers for financial, military, technological and other assistance that is vital for their survival; this deep dependence has diluted their sovereignty.”

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‘The obesity curve finally bent. Now comes the hard part.’

Ashish K. Jha at The Boston Globe

GLP-1s “appear to have done what no public health effort could” for obesity, but “having a treatment is not the same as getting it to the people who need it,” says Ashish K. Jha. Obesity drugs “should be covered by health insurance.” Coverage “should be broad and clinically grounded. It currently is not.” Insurance companies can “build in lower-cost maintenance once a patient stabilizes, so the choice is not a $1,000 injection forever or watching the weight return.”

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]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-fireworks-peace-corps-arab-league-obesity TWduBmyHF2jxQNM5D7UiSM Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:40:32 +0000 Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:41:23 +0000 false false false

‘The case against fireworks’

Char Miller at Time

“This year’s Fourth of July fireworks promise to be especially explosive,” but they have “negative consequences for our environment and our health,” says Char Miller. Climate change is “making landscapes more vulnerable to fire,” and fireworks also “pose other life-threatening challenges.” They “can degrade air quality for hours or even days.” For “people with asthma, cardiovascular disease, or other respiratory conditions, the toxic air presents genuine health risks.” Drone displays “are an innovative alternative with far fewer risks.”

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‘Assailed by right and left, the Peace Corps continues to make an apolitical difference’

Jonathan Zimmerman at The Philadelphia Inquirer

Republicans have “proposed to eliminate funding for the Peace Corps,” but the organization “has also been the target of left-wing attacks,” says Jonathan Zimmerman. Neither side “believes that Americans can be a force for good in the world,” and that is “why the Peace Corps matters.” It is “based on the simple proposition that bringing different people together can help them thrive. And it’s a standing rebuke to cynics on the right and the left.”

Read more

‘Why the Arab League could not stop Israel’s genocide’

Rami G. Khouri at Al Jazeera

“Arabs are perplexed by why their governments and the Arab League have been so docile in the face of the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” says Rami G. Khouri. But Arab states “have never been able to harness their natural, human and geographic resources to become powerful, confident states that are not constantly manipulated.” They “rely heavily on non-Arab powers for financial, military, technological and other assistance that is vital for their survival; this deep dependence has diluted their sovereignty.”

Read more

‘The obesity curve finally bent. Now comes the hard part.’

Ashish K. Jha at The Boston Globe

GLP-1s “appear to have done what no public health effort could” for obesity, but “having a treatment is not the same as getting it to the people who need it,” says Ashish K. Jha. Obesity drugs “should be covered by health insurance.” Coverage “should be broad and clinically grounded. It currently is not.” Insurance companies can “build in lower-cost maintenance once a patient stabilizes, so the choice is not a $1,000 injection forever or watching the weight return.”

Read more

]]> ‘We're eating too much sugar. There are ways to change that.’

Priya Fielding-Singh at USA Today

Added sugar “isn't just in candy and soda,” says Priya Fielding-Singh. It is “pervasive, hiding in everyday staples families depend on — from bread and yogurt to tomato sauce.” The government “should set stricter standards around added sugar in the places where children learn and play, from childcare and schools to aftercare programs.” The USDA “should further reduce how much added sugar is allowed, while investing in kitchen infrastructure so schools can prepare more food on site.”

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‘Once, cyber attacks required great skill. AI is changing that.’

Bruce Schneier at The Guardian

“Cyber attacks — both large and small — have been a significant issue since long before the current crop of generative AI models,” says Bruce Schneier. What has been “changing over the decades, and what AI is changing even faster, is the gap between skill and ability.” These “models can, with little detailed direction, autonomously hack into networks, steal data, deploy ransomware and destroy systems.” To the “extent there is a solution, it’s going to involve harnessing AI for the defense.”

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‘What's really driving Latin America’s rightward elections’

Orlando J. Pérez at The Dallas Morning News

Latin American voters are “not embracing a coherent right-wing program any more than voters in 2018 and 2019 embraced a coherent left-wing one,” says Orlando J. Pérez. They are “doing what Latin American electorates have done for decades: punishing whoever holds office when crime rises and the economy stalls, and backing whoever promises to fix both.” Latin Americans are “exhausted with their governments and quick to replace them.” When “citizens feel unsafe, they back almost anyone who promises order.”

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‘The threat of force was a far more effective deterrent than Trump’s show of force in Iran’

Gilles Paris at Le Monde

Donald Trump “pledged to deliver results that would last for at least the next half-century, but the outcome was disappointing,” says Gilles Paris. The Iran memorandum’s “positions are especially difficult to hold today, notably the belief that Washington’s ‘trustworthiness’ will ‘continue to make us the global partner of first choice.’” The “war, which caught U.S. allies off guard and resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a systemic global crisis, demonstrated the exact opposite.”

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]]> https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-sugar-food-cyber-latin-america-iran bttcANDc9V7F9TseSTVZMn Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:57:45 +0000 Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:01:41 +0000 false false false

‘We're eating too much sugar. There are ways to change that.’

Priya Fielding-Singh at USA Today

Added sugar “isn't just in candy and soda,” says Priya Fielding-Singh. It is “pervasive, hiding in everyday staples families depend on — from bread and yogurt to tomato sauce.” The government “should set stricter standards around added sugar in the places where children learn and play, from childcare and schools to aftercare programs.” The USDA “should further reduce how much added sugar is allowed, while investing in kitchen infrastructure so schools can prepare more food on site.”

Read more

‘Once, cyber attacks required great skill. AI is changing that.’

Bruce Schneier at The Guardian

“Cyber attacks — both large and small — have been a significant issue since long before the current crop of generative AI models,” says Bruce Schneier. What has been “changing over the decades, and what AI is changing even faster, is the gap between skill and ability.” These “models can, with little detailed direction, autonomously hack into networks, steal data, deploy ransomware and destroy systems.” To the “extent there is a solution, it’s going to involve harnessing AI for the defense.”

Read more

‘What's really driving Latin America’s rightward elections’

Orlando J. Pérez at The Dallas Morning News

Latin American voters are “not embracing a coherent right-wing program any more than voters in 2018 and 2019 embraced a coherent left-wing one,” says Orlando J. Pérez. They are “doing what Latin American electorates have done for decades: punishing whoever holds office when crime rises and the economy stalls, and backing whoever promises to fix both.” Latin Americans are “exhausted with their governments and quick to replace them.” When “citizens feel unsafe, they back almost anyone who promises order.”

Read more

‘The threat of force was a far more effective deterrent than Trump’s show of force in Iran’

Gilles Paris at Le Monde

Donald Trump “pledged to deliver results that would last for at least the next half-century, but the outcome was disappointing,” says Gilles Paris. The Iran memorandum’s “positions are especially difficult to hold today, notably the belief that Washington’s ‘trustworthiness’ will ‘continue to make us the global partner of first choice.’” The “war, which caught U.S. allies off guard and resulted in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a systemic global crisis, demonstrated the exact opposite.”

Read more

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