All posts tagged: Last week

IVF’s Opponents Think This Is Their Moment

IVF’s Opponents Think This Is Their Moment

Published by skeptic

Chaos reigns in Alabama—or at least in the Alabama world of reproductive health. Three weeks ago, the state’s supreme court ruled that embryos should be treated as children, thrusting the future of in vitro fertilization, and of thousands of would-be Alabama parents, into uncertainty. Last week, state lawmakers scrambled to pass a legislative fix to protect the right of prospective parents to seek IVF, but they did so without addressing the court’s existential questions about personhood. Meanwhile, those in the wider anti-abortion movement who oppose IVF are feeling hopeful. Whatever the outcome in Alabama, the situation has yanked the issue “into the public consciousness” nationwide, Aaron Kheriaty, a fellow at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, told me. He and his allies object to IVF for the same reason that they object to abortion: Both procedures result, they believe, in the destruction of innocent life. And in an America without federal abortion protections, in which states will continue to redefine and recategorize what qualifies as life, more citizens will soon encounter what Kheriaty considers …

Donald Trump’s Very Good Week

Donald Trump’s Very Good Week

Published by skeptic

The Supreme Court and Republican Party members are all voting in his favor. Illustration by The Atlantic / Source: Win McNamee / Getty March 6, 2024, 2:02 PM ET Donald Trump has often seemed to succeed in politics in spite of difficulty and disaster. Over the last week, something different has been happening: Everything seems to be going Trump’s way. Tuesday’s electoral results provided a perfect cap. Trump has now wrapped up the Republican nomination, with Nikki Haley exiting the race this morning. She departed after Trump won 14 of last night’s contests, losing only in Vermont. In every other state, he won by double-digit margins; in Alaska, he captured three-quarters of the vote. In a terrifying turn for the nation, the only thing that stands between him and the White House now is Joe Biden. Trump’s victory has seemed inevitable for months; Haley never stood a real chance of beating him. Perhaps the largest effect of her campaign was hinting at a submerged weakness for the Trump re-election effort. Haley was able to win …

The Deeper Problem With Google’s Racially Diverse Nazis

The Deeper Problem With Google’s Racially Diverse Nazis

Published by skeptic

Generative AI is not built to honestly mirror reality, no matter what its creators say. Illustration by Paul Spella / The Atlantic; Source: Keystone-France / Getty February 26, 2024, 5:52 PM ET Is there a right way for Google’s generative AI to create fake images of Nazis? Apparently so, according to the company. Gemini, Google’s answer to ChatGPT, was shown last week to generate an absurd range of racially and gender-diverse German soldiers styled in Wehrmacht garb. It was, understandably, ridiculed for not generating any images of Nazis who were actually white. Prodded further, it seemed to actively resist generating images of white people altogether. The company ultimately apologized for “inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions” and paused Gemini’s ability to generate images featuring people. The situation was played for laughs on the cover of the New York Post and elsewhere, and Google, which did not respond to a request for comment, said it was endeavoring to fix the problem. Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan explained in a blog post that the company …

How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t

How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t

Published by skeptic

Near the end of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments about whether Colorado could exclude former President Donald Trump from its ballot as an insurrectionist, the attorney representing voters from the state offered a warning to the justices—one evoking the January 6 riot that had set the case in motion. By this point in the hearing, the justices had made clear that they didn’t like the idea of allowing a single state to kick Trump out of the presidential race, and they didn’t appear comfortable with the Court doing so either. Sensing that Trump would likely stay on the ballot, the attorney, Jason Murray, said that if the Supreme Court didn’t resolve the question of Trump’s eligibility, “it could come back with a vengeance”—after the election, when Congress meets once again to count and certify the votes of the Electoral College. Murray and other legal scholars say that, absent clear guidance from the Supreme Court, a Trump win could lead to a constitutional crisis in Congress. Democrats would have to choose between confirming a winner many …

Trump Wants to Seem Moderate on Abortion

Trump Wants to Seem Moderate on Abortion

Published by skeptic

Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that he regards his party’s position on reproductive rights as a political liability. He blamed the “abortion issue” for his party’s disappointing showing in the 2022 midterms, and he recently blasted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s support for a six-week abortion ban. Trump seems eager to be the Republican who can turn this loser of a political issue into a winner. And we’ve just gotten a peek at how he plans to do it. Last week, The New York Times reported that Trump has expressed support for the idea of a national ban on abortions after 16 weeks of pregnancy except in the case of rape or incest, or to save the mother’s life. Anti-abortion activists, of course, don’t think such a restriction goes far enough. Some of Trump’s most important allies—including evangelical leaders and policy advisers—emphatically support a total ban, a position that Trump knows is poisonous. Trump doesn’t want to say anything official about a 16-week ban, the report said, until he’s clinched the nomination, …

Of Course Presidents Are Officers of the United States

Of Course Presidents Are Officers of the United States

Published by skeptic

To think otherwise threatens the entire idea of a constitutional republic. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: James Devaney / Getty. February 15, 2024, 6:30 AM ET Last week, Donald Trump’s lawyers attempted to convince the Supreme Court that he was a 16th-century European monarch who cannot be disqualified from holding office, because he enjoys immunity from certain constitutional laws. Jonathan Mitchell, Trump’s lawyer, began his argument before the Court by declaring, “Trump is not covered by Section 3 [of the Fourteenth Amendment] because the president is not ‘an officer of the United States’ as that term is used throughout the Constitution.” This effort to avoid the designation “officer of the United States” smacks of a conclusion in want of a rationale. Neither Trump nor his defenders have found a single quotation from the 1860s declaring that the president is not an officer of the United States for purposes of Section 3. Proponents of disqualification, by comparison, have unearthed numerous assertions that Section 3 was meant to encompass all offices and all officeholders. Neither Trump nor …

Ukraine’s Military Shake-Up Will Come at a Cost

Ukraine’s Military Shake-Up Will Come at a Cost

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Zelensky had every right to fire his top general, but the politics could get ugly. Valentyna Polishchuk / Global Images Ukraine / Getty February 9, 2024, 6:05 PM ET That Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would fire his top general, Valerii Zaluzhny, was rumored for months, leaked and officially denied last week, and finally confirmed yesterday, when Zelensky replaced Zaluzhny with General Oleksandr Syrsky. The leaks and denials seem to have reflected political maneuverings behind the scenes. Zaluzhny, who is charismatic and popular with both the public and the troops, is widely thought to have political ambitions. The notion that Zelensky might have been about to fire him because he felt threatened by the general’s popularity helped stir public sentiment in Zaluzhny’s favor. But Zelensky countered adroitly with a different narrative: Two years into the war—after the counteroffensive Zaluzhny designed and led had stalled out—the president sought to refresh his national-security team. Zelensky asked for Zaluzhny’s resignation, but the general refused, requiring the president to fire him. The president then offered the general other prominent positions …

Welcome Back to the Chaos of the Trump Era

Welcome Back to the Chaos of the Trump Era

Published by skeptic

Mardi Gras comes next Tuesday, but Republicans decided to throw a wild carnival a week early. With disarray on Capitol Hill, in the courts, and at the Republican National Committee, yesterday was a throwback to the vertiginous days of the Trump administration. Lots of data show that Americans aren’t paying close attention to politics or don’t believe Donald Trump will really be the Republican nominee, but each bit of Tuesday’s chaos had Trump’s fingerprints all over it—offering a partial preview of what life will be like if Trump is reelected in November. The most surprising fiasco was in the House, where a vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas unexpectedly failed. As I wrote last week, the impeachment never made much sense: Republicans were mostly angry at Mayorkas for policy choices, and the Senate was sure not to convict him. But the House plunged ahead anyway, until suddenly it screeched to a halt. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and no one’s idea of a squish or a renegade, announced that he would oppose the …

How seven companies took over the stock market

How seven companies took over the stock market

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The Magnificent Seven—a nickname for the highest-flying tech stocks—have lately been buoying the S&P 500. Fun cowboy name aside, the stocks’ outsize impact on the market is raising eyebrows. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Flying Too High The Clash’s great song “The Magnificent Seven” follows a worker schlepping through his seven-hour workday, waiting to be set free for lunch and then for a drink at the pub. Wave bub-bub-bub-bye to the boss It’s our profit, it’s his loss But anyway, the lunch bell ring Take one hour, and do your … thang! The lyrics are an amusing commentary on the drudgeries of life under capitalism, with references to Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx tossed in. In an ironic twist, this punk-rock song now shares its name with just about the least punk-rock phenomenon I can …

What Pope Francis’s Decree Means for Gay Catholics Like Me

What Pope Francis’s Decree Means for Gay Catholics Like Me

Published by skeptic

Several years ago, my partner and I asked a priest for a blessing. We wouldn’t describe ourselves as particularly pious, but our Catholic faith has shaped our lives both as individuals and as a couple. We met more than a decade ago, volunteering on a spring-break service trip run by our university’s Catholic student center. We attend church most Sundays, volunteer occasionally at our parish, and try to live out the Gospel as best we can. We’re also gay, so when we approached the priest, we knew we were putting him in a difficult position: At the time, the Church didn’t officially allow clergy to bless same-sex couples. A priest can bless just about anything—person, place, object, event. The process has many forms and functions but ultimately serves to invoke God’s love and remind us of God’s presence. Some blessings occur within a liturgy, such as the one a priest offers a congregation after Mass. Others, like the blessing that my partner and I requested, are less formal; they’re offered spontaneously and wouldn’t be found …