Новости за 08.07.2020

The Supreme Court has affirmed the rights of certain employers to deny contraceptive coverage in their health plans in a case involving a private Catholic health service challenging a long-fought-over provision of the Affordable Care Act. This front in that battle concerned the Trump administration’s rules granting employers, schools, and other entities who must offer a health plan “moral” or “religious” exemptions from covering contraception, as mandated by the health care law. In a 7–2 ruling... Читать дальше...

In what has become an increasingly familiar pattern, the Trump administration set off a wave of confusion, anguish, and uncertainty on Monday as Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced changes to international student programs that would force those whose institutions adopt an online-only model to either transfer schools or leave the country.

In an essay published on June 30, Johns Hopkins University political scientist Yascha Mounk laid out the principles that would define Persuasion, his new newsletter–think tank hybrid. Persuasion, he wrote, would “seek to build a free society in which all individuals get to pursue a meaningful life irrespective of who they are.” He and his all-star cast of center-right and center-left writers—a number of whom, like Mounk, are contributors to The Atlantic—would do so in a principled manner; no trolling! Читать дальше...

American climate campaigners may well envy the European Union right now. As member countries emerge from their coronavirus lockdowns, EU top brass is pushing for a renewables-heavy recovery from the pandemic’s recession, in line with the principles of its “Green Deal” first championed by commissioner Ursula von der Leyen last year. This week, though, European lawmakers are debating an obscure trade deal that could lock not just Europe, but much of the rest of the world into decades of continued fossil fuel use... Читать дальше...

Late last month, Carsyn Leigh Davis turned 17 in an ICU bed in Naples, Florida. Two days later, at 1:06 p.m. on June 23, she died at a children’s hospital across the state, in Miami, where she’d been transferred for last-ditch “heroic efforts” at saving her life. She was the latest of 3,281 deaths in the state from Covid-19 at the time; as I write this, less than two weeks later, the toll is now 3,841.

Most people who live paycheck to paycheck can still usually plan in two-week increments, but Sarah May-Seward plans “shift to shift.” She earns $40 per shift at a bar in White Lake Township in Michigan. Her days can last longer than 11 hours, but under state law she can be paid as little as $3.67 an hour. The rest of her income comes from tips, and that’s where things can get unpredictable: If it’s rainy and people stay home, if there’s a big event going on elsewhere, if a customer is feeling cranky. Читать дальше...

At a time when the daily news cycle reliably delivers a fresh source of mortification for most Americans, some moments of shame are stinging and acute. The United States is now seeing a steady rise in coronavirus cases even as less wealthy and less powerful countries have kept the pandemic in check. Many Americans spent almost three months in lockdown only to see their sacrifice squandered by diffident and incompetent leaders. State and federal officials wasted valuable time to ramp up testing... Читать дальше...