Our weekly roundup of the news, some trends, and our thoughts — plus a reading list for the weekend. And it’s a long one this week…
The First Debate: On Thursday, CNN hosted the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump. At the studio in Atlanta, there was no audience and microphones were muted (except when it was the candidates’ turn to speak). Meanwhile, RFK, who did not qualify for the CNN debate, hosted a livestream on X with a live audience and a self-appointed moderator. We find debate rules and structure endlessly fascinating. One of our favorite interviews with Kathleen Jamieson Hall, a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, is included in a round-up of debate work below:
Assorted Environmental News: Much was written this week about the mass power consumption the widespread adoption of AI demands. The Washington Post reported on inventive (if improbable) technologies the firms are betting on to offset that impact. In California, the bullet train connecting downtown Los Angeles with the Bay Area has finally received complete environmental approval. The New Yorker reported on how California is producing more electricity than needed from renewable sources. Bill McKibben writes, “Something approaching a miracle has been taking place in California this spring. Beginning in early March, for some portion of almost every day, a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower has been producing more than a hundred percent of the state’s demand for electricity.”
A Victory for Libraries: New York Public Libraries are getting their budgets back. “After months of public outcry and pressure from the City Council, New York City’s libraries are poised to have their budgets fully restored so that branches may resume seven-day-a-week service, including Sundays, according to three people with knowledge of the budget negotiations.” According to Gothamist, the deal will reverse $58 million in library cuts.
A few other things….
The Supreme Court seems set to allow abortions in medical emergencies in Idaho.
IATSE has reached a tentative agreement.
The Supreme Court bans homeless encampments.
A reading list for the weekend:
An essay on conspiracy, grief, and the Midwest in the Believer: Growing up in the Midwest, you end up cultivating an eerie premonition, an awareness that the wholesome landscape—the polychromatic farmland and serrated bluffs—belies the region’s more unsettling history: failed utopias, tent-meeting revivals, asylums for feebleminded children.”
An essay on “speaking iPhone” in The Atlantic: “For the past 10 years, the English language’s wealth of previously exformative, subcultural slang has dispersed into a single, universal argot that is simply Phone.”
The Guardian asked readers to tell them about their best friends: “I love Doha. I love when she gets a little drunk and lets go of her seriousness. I hope she knows how interesting and lovely she is to be around. I love Naila. She is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met. Haneen is like me in so many ways. Maybe that’s why we misunderstand each other sometimes. I never stopped loving her for a moment, even when we weren’t talking.”