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    <title>Will Trump Direct FEMA to Fund Churches Hit by Harvey?  - The Atlantic</title>

    

        
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        <section id="article-section-1"><p>Hurricane Harvey blew the steeple off of Rockport First Assembly of God in Rockport, Texas. Harvest Family Church in Cypress got covered in a layer of mud and silt. Three feet of water filled the sanctuary of Hi-Way Tabernacle in Cleveland.</p><p>Despite this damage, the Tabernacle has served as an emergency staging area for government relief efforts in the aftermath of the storm, providing shelter for evacuees, emergency meals for families, and storage for food, water, clothing, and hygiene products. And despite the chaos, Hi-Way Tabernacle and these two other churches are involved in another effort: suing the federal government.</p><aside class="callout" data-omni-click="r'article',r' ',d,r'related',#data-omni-index,@data-article-id"><hr><h4>
        
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    <p><a href="/politics/archive/2017/06/trinity-lutheran/531399/" data-omni-index="0" data-article-id="840969" data-omni-click="inherit">The Supreme Court Strikes Down a Major Church-State Barrier</a></p>
    

    <hr></aside><p>According to the stated policy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, houses of worship cannot receive funding from the agency’s public-assistance program, which provides money for emergency fire and rescue services, medical care, urgent debris removal, and critical utility repairs in the wake of disasters. The three churches’ lawsuit is intended to challenge that rule and give religious organizations and other non-profits equal eligibility for this kind of FEMA funding. The case can also be read as a bid to expand the reach of a recent Supreme Court ruling on church-state funding, which if it succeeds, would have consequences far beyond Texas.</p><p>Faith-based organizations, including churches, synagogues, and mosques, provide an extraordinary amount of support during natural disasters. Greg Forrester—the president and CEO of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, an association of relief groups—<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/10/hurricane-irma-faith-groups-provide-bulk-disaster-recovery-coordination-fema/651007001/" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'0',r'539346'">told <em>USA Today</em></a> that non-profits are responsible for 80 percent of recovery efforts, and most of those are faith-based. Religious groups that largely serve a secular purpose in their broader communities are eligible for funding. But those that spend more than half of their time and resources on worship, outreach, religious education, or internal fundraising aren’t eligible—a rule that effectively excludes all houses of worship.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector1" targeting-pos="boxinjector1" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-2"><p>“We’re just picking up the pieces like everyone else. And we just want to be treated like everyone else,” said Paul Capehart, the pastor of Harvest Family Church, through his lawyers. “Our faith is what drives us to help others. Faith certainly doesn’t keep us from helping others, and we’re not sure why it keeps FEMA from helping us.” While churches are leading the legal case, Jewish groups including the Orthodox Union are also lobbying for a policy change, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Amid-dual-storms-Jewish-groups-fight-over-FEMA-funding-504624" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'1',r'539346'">according to </a><em><a href="http://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/Amid-dual-storms-Jewish-groups-fight-over-FEMA-funding-504624" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'2',r'539346'">The Jerusalem Post</a>.</em></p><p>On Friday, President Trump tweeted his support for churches caught in disasters.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Churches in Texas should be entitled to reimbursement from FEMA Relief Funds for helping victims of Hurricane Harvey (just like others).</p>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/906320446882271232" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'3',r'539346'">September 9, 2017</a></blockquote><p>At least one FEMA official publicly cheered his pronouncement: “Amen!” <a href="https://twitter.com/JamieJohnsonUSA/status/906519523645431809" data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'4',r'539346'">replied</a> Jamie Johnson, the director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, where he focuses on disaster relief.</p><p>The president’s tweet “was a very good development,” said Daniel Blomberg, a lawyer who is representing the churches through Becket, an educational and legal institute focused on religious freedom. “All the churches are asking for is that when FEMA is making a determination, it’s no longer using religion as a criteria to keep parts of the community from asking for equal disaster relief.”</p><p>The timeline for FEMA funding is tight. The president has to declare an emergency or national disaster, and affected organizations generally have to request public assistance within 30 days. In their lawsuit, the three Texas churches requested expedited relief, arguing that they only have until that 30-day deadline—September 26—to win protection “against FEMA’s discrimination.”</p></section><div class="ad-boxright-wrapper" data-pos="boxright"><gpt-ad id="boxright1" targeting-pos="boxright1" class="ad ad-boxright" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="3" data-object-name="boxright"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [300, 600]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-3"><p>Theoretically, the president could just direct FEMA to make all religious organizations eligible for funding under the public-assistance program. After all, FEMA is a federal agency under his authority. Similar things have happened in the past: In the wake of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005, the Bush administration agreed to reimburse religious organizations for the shelter, food, and supplies they provided to the general public.</p><p class="pullquote">“This seems to be policy that is made disaster by disaster.”</p><p>The Trump administration “could go ahead and do it,” said Robert Tuttle, a professor at George Washington University Law School. But the problem is that “this seems to be policy that is made disaster by disaster.” Even if the president directs FEMA to do something, the agency could later face lawsuits for doing so. In this case, critics could argue that such funding violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.</p><p>This, however, is the strategic brilliance of the Texas church lawsuit. If the churches win an injunction or the government loses in court and FEMA is directed to give out money to churches, there’s “no guarantee that … the government will appeal,” said Tuttle. By then, the funds would have already been disbursed, and it would be up to an outside group like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to challenge the decision—and find itself in the politically tenuous position of trying to take money away from churches that got destroyed in a hurricane.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector2" targeting-pos="boxinjector2" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-4"><p>The churches’ lawsuit relies heavily on a recent Supreme Court decision, <em>Trinity Lutheran v. Comer</em>. In that case, a Missouri church sued the state for excluding it from a playground-resurfacing program on religious grounds. Seven of the nine justices found in favor of the church. “<em>Trinity Lutheran </em>is, in some ways, a closer case than this one,” argued Blomberg. While the church in that case was asking to be part of a program that would enhance its facilities, “no one is asking for the church to be improved” in Houston, he said. “They’re just trying to get back on their feet [and] … get to a place where they’re no longer a public-health and public-safety hazard.”</p><p>It’s not clear how broadly the Supreme Court justices intended for <em>Trinity Lutheran </em>to be applied, or whether they would see these cases as similar. “I am deeply skeptical of that analogy,” said Tuttle. Two things distinguish this case from <em>Trinity Lutheran</em>, he argued. In the majority opinion for that case, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the decision doesn’t reach the question of “religious uses of funding,” meaning that it might not apply in cases where state funding goes to rebuild a literal sanctuary used for worship. The second difference, argued Tuttle, is that it’s not clear that the three Texas churches would be eligible for FEMA funding even if they weren’t houses of worship. The agency’s public-assistance program only covers certain kinds of immediate relief. Other, non-critical repairs are generally referred to the Small Business Administration, which provides disaster-recovery loans. Organizations can get FEMA money for permanent repair work if the SBA turns them down or doesn’t cover all of the damages.</p></section><div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper"><gpt-ad id="boxinjector3" targeting-pos="boxinjector3" class="ad ad-boxinjector" lazy-load="2" data-object-pk="1" data-object-name="boxinjector"><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[0, 0]" sizes="[[300, 250], [320, 350], [300, 350], [1, 3], [320, 520], [320, 430], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[760, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1010, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1, 3], [768, 350], [768, 520], [640, 360], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset><gpt-sizeset viewport-size="[1050, 0]" sizes="[[728, 90], [728, 350], [970, 250], [1024, 350], [1, 3], [970, 350], [760, 350], [1, 4], [1, 5]]"></gpt-sizeset></gpt-ad></div><section id="article-section-5"><p class="pullquote">“It’s the kind of thing that we might cook up so that we can put it on exam questions.”</p><p>Constitutionally speaking, “the real question comes down to whether this is framed as a public-safety, emergency-relief action or whether it’s framed as helping a church get a new building,” said Richard Garnett, a professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame. “Nobody thinks it’s unconstitutional for a fire truck to put out a fire at a church, and clearly there aren’t different Establishment Clause rules for fires and floods. But are there different rules for putting out fires and repairing a building after it burns?”</p><p>Harvey, Irma, and other recent disasters have created a strong legal test case—“it’s the kind of thing that we might cook up so that we can put it on exam questions,” said Garnett. Tuttle offered a slightly more cynical read: “Lawyers are taking this opportunity to try to get relief for these particular congregations—and at the same time, to extend the reach of <em>Trinity Lutheran</em>,” he said. Blomberg described it differently: Becket has been pushing against FEMA’s church policy for years, he said, and <em>Trinity Lutheran </em>was just a sign that the law is moving in the right direction, at least in its view.</p><p>In weighing in on the case in Texas, Trump wasn’t just commenting about a few specific churches. He intervened in a long-standing debate about the proper line between church and state in public funding. In an instant, the president could change the terms of the debate, but “whether or not it’s constitutionally permissible doesn’t hinge on whether the president supports it or not,” Garnett said. A change to FEMA’s policy would not be the end of the storm—legally or otherwise. As the churches say in their lawsuit: “Mold will not wait for litigation process to spread through the churches’ buildings; storm and flood debris will not stop rotting while the government processes their claims.”</p></section>
    
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        <p class="dek">Americans would be less alienated from one another and solve problems more easily if they recognized one little-noticed distinction in policy debates.</p>
        
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            <p>We sometimes think of political issues in binary terms. Is someone pro-life or pro-choice? But most individuals hold views that are more complicated than a binary can capture.</p>

<p>An alternative is to describe a given position on a spectrum. On abortion, an outright ban sits at one extreme; at the other is the elimination of all restrictions on the procedure. In between are a staggering array of coherently distinguishable positions.</p>

<p>Politicians seeking to win votes express their stances either in terms of a binary or as a spot on a spectrum, depending on where they see the greatest advantage. Though their beliefs don’t change, how they frame them makes a political difference.</p>

<p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p>

<p>There’s a different set of frames, though, that are as relevant as binaries and spectrums, though they are less familiar and less discussed: equilibriums and limits.</p>


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        <p class="dek">Will Toronto turn its residents into Alphabet’s experiment? The answer has implications for cities everywhere.</p>
        
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            <p class="dropcap" dir="ltr">Q<span class="smallcaps">uayside is a</span> nondescript, 12-acre chunk of land on the southern edge of Toronto’s downtown. It’s just three miles from my apartment, but getting there takes almost an hour by subway, bus, and foot. When I finally arrive at 333 Lake Shore Boulevard East on a windy day in early January, I find a vacant parking lot full of snow. The abandoned Victory Soya Mills silos loom at its edge—a remnant of the city’s industrial heyday. The plot is half of the future site of Sidewalk Toronto, a “<a href="https://sidewalktoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Sidewalk-Labs-Vision-Sections-of-RFP-Submission.pdf">neighborhood built from the internet up</a>” by Google’s sister company, Sidewalk Labs. Lake Ontario is frozen and it’s <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/cold-weather-united-states-mars/549386/">colder</a> than the surface of Mars the day I go to look at the site.</p>

<p>It’s a far cry from the vision that fills the Sidewalk Toronto <a href="https://sidewalktoronto.ca/">webpage</a>, where a crisp video shot on a sunny day makes the Victory silos look cheerful and full of potential. Torontonians in puffer vests and toques describe a vibrant city bursting at the seams. Toronto’s population <a href="http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&amp;Geo1=CSD&amp;Code1=3520005&amp;Geo2=PR&amp;Code2=35&amp;Data=Count&amp;SearchText=Prince&amp;SearchType=Begins&amp;SearchPR=01&amp;B1=All">grew</a> by 4.5 percent between 2011 and 2016. The city tolerates a <a href="https://www.lowestrates.ca/blog/finance/how-much-it-costs-live-young-person-toronto-2018">high cost of living</a> and a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/11/28/rental-vacancy-rates-lowest-in-16-years.html">low rental-vacancy rate</a>.</p>


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        <p class="dek">Even when the FBI recommends against granting a clearance, there’s nothing to prevent a president from simply overriding the system.</p>
        
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<p>Until his <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/john-kelly-rob-porter/552704/">abrupt resignation last week amid allegations of physical and verbal abuse by two ex-wives</a>, Porter had served as staff secretary, handling classified material under an interim security clearance. The question is when the White House learned about the allegations against Porter, when it learned that he would not be recommended for a permanent security clearance, and whether he would have been allowed to continue working barring the press reports about the allegations.</p>


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        <p class="dek"><span><span>Its faith-based 12-step program dominates treatment in the United States. But researchers have debunked central tenets of AA doctrine and found dozens of other treatments more effective.</span></span></p>
        
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            <p><span class="smallcaps">J.G. is a lawyer</span> in his early 30s. He’s a fast talker and has the lean, sinewy build of a distance runner. His choice of profession seems preordained, as he speaks in fully formed paragraphs, his thoughts organized by topic sentences. He’s also a worrier—a big one—who for years used alcohol to soothe his anxiety.</p>

<p>J.G. started drinking at 15, when he and a friend experimented in his parents’ liquor cabinet. He favored gin and whiskey but drank whatever he thought his parents would miss the least. He discovered beer, too, and loved the earthy, bitter taste on his tongue when he took his first cold sip.</p>

<p>His drinking increased through college and into law school. He could, and occasionally did, pull back, going cold turkey for weeks at a time. But nothing quieted his anxious mind like booze, and when he didn’t drink, he didn’t sleep. After four or six weeks dry, he’d be back at the liquor store.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Abraham Lincoln's Secret Visits to Slaves</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/william-r-black/" itemprop="url" title="William R. Black" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">William R. Black</span></a></span></li>
        

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        <p class="dek">In the mid-1930s, the Federal Writers’ Project interviewed thousands of former slaves, some of whom claimed the president came to their plantations disguised as a beggar or a peddler, telling them they’d soon be free.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>Shortly before the election of 1860, a man <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/mesn.130/?sp=231">came upon</a> a plantation near Marlin, Texas, some 20 miles southeast of Waco. Though nobody knew who he was, the plantation owner took him in as a guest. The stranger paid close attention to how the enslaved people working on the plantation were treated—how they subsisted on a weekly ration of “four pounds of meat and a peck of meal,” how they were whipped and sometimes sold, resulting in the tearing apart of families. Eventually, the stranger said goodbye and went on his way, but a little while later he wrote a letter to the plantation owner, informing him he would soon have to free his slaves—“that everybody was going to have to, that the North was going to see to it.” The stranger told the owner to go into the room where he’d slept, and see where he’d carved his name into the headrest. And when the slaveholder went and looked, he saw the name: “A. Lincoln.”</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Russia Can Keep the Peace Between Israel and Iran</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/joost-hiltermann/" itemprop="url" title="Joost Hiltermann" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Joost Hiltermann</span></a></span></li>
        

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        <p class="dek">But following the hostilities over the weekend, does Putin want to?</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>There are still many unanswered questions about the reported incident with the Iranian drone in northern Israel last week, but two things should be clear. First, the 12-year-old lull <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/eastern-mediterranean/syria/182-israel-hizbollah-and-iran-preventing-another-war-syria">between Israel and Hezbollah</a> will come to an end if a new understanding about the rules governing conflict in this region is not reached. And second, Russia will need to help broker that new understanding.</p>

<p>As for the incident itself: Israel claimed that it shot down an Iranian reverse-engineered Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel drone as it entered the country’s airspace from Jordan on February 10. The RQ-170 is a surveillance drone the size of a small airplane, with a wingspan of over 65 feet. Iran claimed to have downed one in 2011—a fact that the United States has acknowledged—and then used it to build one of its own. According to Israel, this RQ-170 was launched and operated from an Iranian base near the Syrian city of Palmyra. Israeli planes retaliated, targeting both the launch site and various other Iranian and Syrian regime assets in Syria. Iran has denied any role, and Jordan has yet to make a public statement about the apparent violation of its airspace.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">What It Takes to Actually Convict Police of Misconduct</h3>
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        <p class="dek">Officers involved in fatal incidents keep getting acquitted, but a team of Baltimore cops who stole from suspects and taxpayers alike during a years-long criminal spree are facing serious jail time.</p>
        
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            <p>Something amazing happened over the course of a recent trial in Baltimore: Witnesses laid out the way that the city’s Gun Trace Task Force <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/baltimore-gun-trace-task-force-abuses/551663/">acted as a de facto criminal gang</a>, but with the advantages of a police badge and the power of the state. Officers assigned to the unit robbed hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug dealers, pocketing the money. They targeted cars for searches based on makes and models, and stopped adult black men just for carrying backpacks. They drove at groups of men and detained anyone who ran. They bilked taxpayers by charging for fraudulent overtime.</p>

<p>On Monday, something even more amazing happened. Two officers were <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-gttf-verdict-20180208-story.html">convicted</a> of racketeering and robbery charges in federal court. They joined six others who had already pleaded guilty. Stories of police misconduct have become bracingly common in recent years, but convictions have remained rare. The failure to convict any Baltimore officer in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray is the obvious contrast, but similar cases all over the country, from Tamir Rice to Eric Garner to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/footage-of-a-police-killing-that-jurors-didnt-punish/547868/">Daniel Shaver</a>, have also ended without convictions.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">Sympathy for Janet on <i>The Good Place</i></h3>
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        <p class="dek">The show is the latest example of pop culture thinking through whether Siri has a soul.</p>
        
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            <p><strong><em>This article contains mild spoilers through Season 2 of </em>The Good Place.</strong></p>

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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">The American Dream on Thin Ice</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/erik-malinowski/" itemprop="url" title="Erik Malinowski" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Erik Malinowski</span></a></span></li>
        

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        <p class="dek">A decision by the International Olympic Committee has all but guaranteed a loss for Team USA in hockey. But don’t count them out just yet.</p>
        
        <div class="excerpt">
            <p>It’s an undeniable fact that the United States’ standing as an international power has taken a serious hit over the past year. And this emerging, still unfamiliar reality is about to be put on full display. As America falls a few notches in the eyes of its peers, Russia and other nations stand to gain in tremendous ways.</p>

<p>This dire-sounding analysis centers on—what else?—the Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament, which <a href="https://www.olympic.org/pyeongchang-2018/results/en/ice-hockey/daily-schedule.htm">commences Wednesday</a> as the United States faces Slovenia and Russia tussles with Slovakia in the first two matches of the opening round. As two-time Olympic champions, the Americans have a history of capping off historic runs at just the right time. But their status as a quadrennial medal contender all but evaporated in the wake of a controversial decision last spring.</p>


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        <h3 class="hed" itemprop="headline">'America First' Is Straining Bill Gates's Optimism</h3>
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        <li class="byline"><span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Person"><a href="/author/rachel-gutman/" itemprop="url" title="Rachel Gutman" data-omni-click="inherit"><span itemprop="name">Rachel Gutman</span></a></span></li>
        

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        <p class="dek">The philanthropist still thinks the world is getting better. But he says pulling foreign aid from global-health measures would reverse that trend.</p>
        
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            <p>Bill Gates isn’t a big fan of “America First.” In a recent episode of <em>The Atlantic Interview, </em>he told Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of <em>The Atlantic</em>, “the long-term benefit of [nations] trusting each other, even beyond one or two terms of office, is a pretty gigantic thing.”</p>

<p>That’s not to say Gates is pessimistic about the future. His and Melinda Gates’s tenth annual letter, <a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/2018-Annual-Letter">released</a> Tuesday, is otherwise sunny in its global outlook. Even after 2017, when 59 percent of Americans <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/state-nation.pdf">told</a> the APA they were currently living through the lowest point in the nation’s history, the couple wrote that “we see a world that’s getting better.”</p>

<p>But as Gates stressed to Goldberg, the modern world still faces serious threats, especially those that transcend geopolitical borders. “We have more connectivity working against us,” he said. And because of this connectivity, Gates fears a new global pandemic. More spending on global health could avert such a crisis, but a dip in public-health spending could hasten catastrophe.</p>


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        <p class="dek">Lucius Zafalon is a daredevil motorcycle rider who risks his body in the pursuit of the perfect Globe of Death act.</p>
        
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