The Atlantic Daily: Stopgap Deal, Risky Diplomacy, Grown-Ups' Grandparents

And more

Tourists stand near the U.S. Capitol during a government shutdown in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 2018. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

What We’re Following

Open for the Public: Lawmakers have reached a deal to fund the government for three more weeks after disagreements over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, defense spending, and other matters led to a three-day shutdown over the weekend. Senate Democrats had been holding out for DACA protections in particular, but Monday’s agreement included only a promise to debate such legislation before the next funding deadline, leaving immigration advocates disappointed. For their part, Republicans are claiming a “Win for [the] White House,” although President Trump appeared to have very little to do with the deal.

El Salvador: The U.S. Catholic Church is pushing back against Trump’s recent decision to suspend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadorans, which has put nearly 200,000 immigrants—many of them longtime U.S. residents and active parishioners—at risk of deportation. TPS protects people who are unable to return to their home countries out of fear for their safety. The dangerous conditions in El Salvador over the past few decades have included not only a devastating earthquake, but also a bloody civil war in which the U.S. played a role.

Diplomatic Deals: On a visit to Jerusalem, Vice President Mike Pence affirmed Washington’s support of Israel and called for continued work toward peace with Palestine—yet the Trump administration’s controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital may have complicated that process. Trump’s continued calls for improvements to the Iran nuclear deal likewise carry a risk of undermining the agreement. Meanwhile, North and South Korea have reached a historic breakthrough with their agreement to send a joint women’s hockey team to the Winter Olympics next month—but they’re on thin political ice.


Snapshot

People participate in the Women’s March for Truth in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 20, 2018—one of many demonstrations held around the world on Saturday in support of women’s rights and in opposition to President Trump. Read Lena Felton’s coverage from New York City here, and see Emily Jan’s photos from Washington, D.C., here. (Whitney Curtis / Getty)

Evening Read

Claire Berman reflects on a visit from her 20-year-old granddaughter, Rachel:

We were excited, but wary as well. It had been a long time since we’d had a young person living with us. Would we find ourselves waiting up until we heard her key in the door? What were the rules? What were our roles? And what if something should happen to her while on our watch? I found myself having dreams about my own grandmother, Bubbe Chana, who wore sensible Oxfords, smelled faintly of lavender, and would hold my hand too tightly whenever we came to a crossing. Like my bubbe, I wanted to love and protect my granddaughter. But I’d barely celebrated my eighth birthday when my grandmother died. Rachel was too old to be led by the hand.

Instead, we’d have to navigate a relationship that is more common today than it was when I was Rachel’s age. At around 70 million people, grandparents represent a bigger chunk of America’s population than ever before, according to data released by the Census Bureau. That number is expected to go even higher as more baby boomers join the senior ranks. Americans are living more than half a decade longer than they were 50 years ago, too. Many grandparents now have the ability to be in their grandchildren’s lives for many years. But how does the grandparent role change as grandchildren age?

Keep reading here, as Berman describes how she and Rachel worked things out.


What Do You Know … About Education?

Issues of sex and consent have been dominating the headlines as the “Weinstein Effect” spreads across American industries, but college campuses have been grappling with these same questions for years, and their methods could serve as a blueprint—or a warning—for today’s movement. Meanwhile, many nonwhite students in rural America don’t even see college as an option, and their enrollment rates are alarmingly low.

Can you remember the other key facts from this week’s education coverage? Test your knowledge below:

1. Answers to a recent poll revealed that Americans were more likely to disapprove of school-choice programs if they were called “____________.”

Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.

2. Almost ____________ percent of college students are unemployed upon graduating, according to 2016 data.

Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.

3. __________ percent of young people raised by parents with college diplomas report being encouraged to attend a four-year college, compared with 29 percent of students raised by parents without degrees.

Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.

Answers: vouchers / 6 / 80


Look Back

From our August 1908 issue, Ellis Meredith quotes another leader of the women’s suffrage movement, Sarah Platt Decker, on what it means to have the right to vote:

“You can’t exactly explain why suffrage is desirable. If you were to post a notice that all the workmen of this state would be disfranchised at the next general election, you would have war and bloody war. Why? Does it make any particular difference to any individual workman whether Roosevelt or Bryan is elected? Not a particle. Then why does he want to vote? Because the vote is an indefinable something that makes you part of the plan of the world. It means the same to women that it does to men. You never ask a boy, ‘Have you closed the saloons, have you purified politics and driven all the political tricksters out of the state?’ No, you put your hand on his shoulder and you say, “To-day, my boy, you are an American citizen,’ and that is what you say to your daughter.”

Read more here, and find more stories from our archives here.


Reader Response

On Friday, a reader named Dan who had voted for Trump as the “[lesser] of two evils” described his feelings of anger and disappointment as the presidency hits the one-year mark. Another reader, Anthony, writes from Virginia:

While my expectations were and continue to be low, what I did not expect was the amount of cultural stress I would feel on a daily basis since his inauguration … With the exception of the Charlottesville debacle (I am Jewish), no policy or action may have directly impacted myself, but I feel the ramifications on everyone around me … For example, I am a graduate student, and am surrounded by a strong international presence (Nepalese, Chinese, Iranian, Saudi, Peruvian, Turkish, British, Greek, and more). There is not a day that goes by where these students, who are merely here for an education, do not feel inherently threatened and unwelcome. Some have even been accosted in grocery stores to “return to their country” or asked “Why are you here?”

Carly in Galesburg, Illinois, describes a similar sense of stress:

Every day I open up the news with a renewed sick sense of dread. I’m exhausted. After I leave school I have no idea how I’ll get funding for graduate school, afford healthcare, or find decent wages. These, obviously, have never been set in stone, however, during our last presidency I was hopeful about my chances to make a good life for myself, but so much of that hope has been slashed in the past year. It’s heartbreaking; it’s worse than I ever thought it would be.

Read about why politics can cause depression here. Go here for psychologists’ advice on how to cope with Trump-related stress. And stay tuned for more reader perspectives in the coming week.


Verbs

Showman succeeds, board games invade, refugees rally, trust falls.


Time of Your Life

Happy birthday to Dwarkanath (a year younger than sunscreen); to Kristina’s daughter Hayley (twice the age of Instagram); to Ron, who shares a birthday with Beckett (both are a year younger than universal credit cards); to Michael’s partner, Stephen (the same age as the first handheld scientific calculator); to Jamie’s client and dear friend Diane (born around the time of the Selma to Montgomery march); and to Natalie (twice the age of hip-hop records).

From yesterday, happy birthday from Liz to Carolyn (a year younger than T-shirts); to JoAnn’s husband, Rick (18 years older than the Concorde aircraft); to M (twice the age of The Simpsons); to Coulter (a year younger than the World Wide Web); to Anna’s twin brothers Michael and Stephen (twice the age of The Oprah Winfrey Show); to Barbara (a year younger than James Bond); to Courtenay’s spouse (a year younger than The Cat in the Hat); and to Andrei’s wife (twice the age of the iTunes Store).

Do you or a loved one have a birthday coming up? Sign up for a birthday shout-out here, and click here to explore the Timeline feature for yourself.


Most Popular on The Atlantic

Many of you have written in to ask what happened to the “Most Popular” list. Normally, that section gets added automatically, but there’s a bug in the process, and we’re still working on getting it fixed. In the meantime, here are five of the most popular articles on our site today:

1. The Democrats Relent

2. The Invasion of the German Board Games

3. The Problem With Courting Amazon

4. The Disappearing Dealmaker

5. Why Can’t People Hear What Jordan Peterson Is Saying?


Meet The Atlantic Daily’s team here, and contact us here.

Did you get this newsletter from a friend? Sign yourself up here.

Rosa Inocencio Smith is a former assistant editor at The Atlantic.