as part of our plans for world media domination, we’re incredibly excited to unveil our revamped website - theweeklyrundown.us - and a new weekly blog, hottakes! unlike twitter and your average newspaper’s oped section, we’re planning on doing some actual research here before proclaiming that Sesame Street is just a cover for a secret FBI sting operation targeting furries. 

expect lengthier articles published each wednesday directly to our website instead of emailed out, sometimes related to the news, sometimes not. we figured we’d start out with a super chill topic no one ever has opinions on - the origins of the arab israeli conflict .

big idea: progressives cry themselves to sleep

1. progressives lost a special primary election for a house seat in ohio this week. this followed similar defeats against moderate dems in recent weeks in new mexico, louisiana, virginia, and new york city. these losses came despite progressive luminaries like uncle Bernie and AOC endorsing and stumping for their losing candidates. most of these defeats weren’t even that close, with the ohio election ending in a six-point margin.
2. what’s particularly interesting is that these winning ‘moderate’ candidates are fairly left of center and embraced progressive talking points, like a $15 minimum wage, a permanent child tax credit, and medicare for all. what separated them from their progressive counterparts was mostly their tamer rhetoric, less flashy style, and unwillingness to insult the democratic party or Joe. turns out hating on a septuagenarian with aviators just comes off as elder abuse, not campaigning. 
3. progressives seem intent on looking down at the democratic base of black and minority voters and working class whites instead of earning their votes. they keep blaming money and advertising for their losses, despite their chosen candidate in ohio outraising her moderate opponent by more than a 2:1 margin. we’ll see if progressives learn anything from their defeats in time for 2022’s big redistricting fights.

story to watch: Apple spies on iCloud users

1. Apple is receiving considerable flak over its plan to begin scanning images uploaded to its iCloud service (including those taken on iPhones and iPads) for child pornography. if these illegal images are found on a user’s account by its algorithms, a human will verify the results and notify law enforcement. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has already criticized the move - who knew Facebook could ever be so right?
2. privacy advocates are disappointed because it essentially ends Apple’s promises of end-to-end encryption and that “what happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone”. this method could be weaponized by authoritarian regimes around the world which