Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
“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.”
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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.”
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.”
“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.”
Justin Klawans has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022. He began his career covering local news before joining Newsweek as a breaking news reporter, where he wrote about politics, national and global affairs, business, crime, sports, film, television and other news. Justin has also freelanced for outlets including Collider and United Press International.