'It's not supposed to be this way'

'On Labor Day, think of the children working graveyard shifts right under our noses'

Sally Greenberg at USA Today

It's a "bitter reality" that organizations are "once again having to make child labor reforms an urgent priority," says Sally Greenberg. What is "incomprehensible is that, instead of trying to correct a situation that is so obviously wrong, efforts have been made to weaken restrictions on hazardous work for teenagers," making it "easier for them to be exploited." Lawmakers should "toughen existing penalties for employers who choose to ignore the law and exploit and endanger children."

Read more

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'Why anti-Zionism is antisemitic'

Rebecca Cypess at The Wall Street Journal

Anti-Zionism "undermines the millennia-old ties between Judaism and the land of Israel" and gives "license to religious litmus tests against traditional Judaism," says Rebecca Cypess. Criticizing "Israel's government, the behavior of some of its citizens, its policies or its prosecution of the current war isn't inherently antisemitic." But "protests against the government, its policies, and the war aren't the same as anti-Zionism," which "is antisemitic, because it attacks a core belief of Judaism."

Read more

'The media are about to help Trump fail his way back to the White House'

Michael Tomasky at The New Republic

Donald Trump "still gets treated like a normal candidate," and it's "often the case that the media, presented with another one of his addled rants, will dive in, scoop, and separate enough words" to "present their director's cut of his wandering mind for public consumption," says Michael Tomasky. There represents a "continuing problem with how the political press deals with a person" who "historically has very few actual ideas beyond schemes to get himself on television."

Read more

'A failing grade for the Electoral College'

Theodore R. Johnson at The Washington Post

The Electoral College has "become increasingly unrepresentative even as our democracy has become more accessible," says Theodore R. Johnson. The "people's shift is of little interest in the college. There, states matter most." The "Electoral College is overdue an overhaul. Few generations of Americans know that as well as ours," and the "need for reform is glaring." The "only open question is if we are brave enough to finally make the College our own."

Read more