political essays 2021

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The Top Ten Most-Read Essays of 2021

In a year marked by high political drama, economic unrest, and rising assaults on democracy, we at the  Journal of Democracy sought to provide insight and analysis of the forces that imperil freedom. Here are our 10 most-read essays of 2021.

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The best essays: the 2021 pen/diamonstein-spielvogel award, recommended by adam gopnik.

WINNER OF the 2021 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay

Had I Known: Collected Essays by Barbara Ehrenreich

Every year, the judges of the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay search out the best book of essays written in the past year and draw attention to the author's entire body of work. Here, Adam Gopnik , writer, journalist and PEN essay prize judge, emphasizes the role of the essay in bearing witness and explains why the five collections that reached the 2021 shortlist are, in their different ways, so important.

Interview by Benedict King

Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader by Vivian Gornick

Nature Matrix: New and Selected Essays by Robert Michael Pyle

Terroir: Love, Out of Place by Natasha Sajé

Maybe the People Would be the Times by Luc Sante

1 Had I Known: Collected Essays by Barbara Ehrenreich

2 unfinished business: notes of a chronic re-reader by vivian gornick, 3 nature matrix: new and selected essays by robert michael pyle, 4 terroir: love, out of place by natasha sajé, 5 maybe the people would be the times by luc sante.

W e’re talking about the books shortlisted for the 2021 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay . As an essayist yourself, or as a reader of essays, what are you looking for? What’s the key to a good essay ?

Let’s turn to the books that made the shortlist of the 2021 PEN Award for the Art of the Essay. The winning book was Had I Known: Collected Essays by Barbara Ehrenreich , whose books have been recommended a number of times on Five Books. Tell me more. 

One of the criteria for this particular prize is that it should be not just for a single book, but for a body of work. One of the things we wanted to honour about Barbara Ehrenreich is that she has produced a remarkable body of work. Although it’s offered in a more specifically political register than some essayists, or that a great many past prize winners have practised, the quiddity of her work is that it remains rooted in personal experience, in the act of bearing witness. She has a passionate political point to make, certainly, a series of them, many seeming all the more relevant now than when she began writing. Nonetheless, her writing still always depends on the intimacy of first-hand knowledge, what people in post-incarceration work call ‘lived experience’ (a term with a distinguished philosophical history). Her book Nickel and Dimed is the classic example of that. She never writes from a distance about working-class life in America. She bears witness to the nature and real texture of working-class life in America.

“One point of giving awards…is to keep passing the small torches of literary tradition”

Next up of the books on the 2021 PEN essay prize shortlist is Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader by Vivian Gornick.

Vivian Gornick is a writer who’s been around for a very long time. Although longevity is not in itself a criterion for excellence—or for this prize, or in the writing life generally—persistence and perseverance are. Writers who keep coming back at us, again and again, with a consistent vision, are surely to be saluted. For her admirers, her appetite to re-read things already read is one of the most attractive parts of her oeuvre , if I can call it that; her appetite not just to read but to read deeply and personally. One of the things that people who love her work love about it is that her readings are never academic, or touched by scholarly hobbyhorsing. They’re readings that involve the fullness of her experience, then applied to literature. Although she reads as a critic, she reads as an essayist reads, rather than as a reviewer reads. And I think that was one of the things that was there to honour in her body of work, as well.

Is she a novelist or journalist, as well?

Let’s move on to the next book which made the 2021 PEN essay shortlist. This is Nature Matrix: New and Selected Essays by Robert Michael Pyle.

I have a special reason for liking this book in particular, and that is that it corresponds to one of the richest and oldest of American genres, now often overlooked, and that’s the naturalist essay. You can track it back to Henry David Thoreau , if not to Ralph Waldo Emerson , this American engagement with nature , the wilderness, not from a narrowly scientific point of view, nor from a purely ecological or environmental point of view—though those things are part of it—but again, from the point of view of lived experience, of personal testimony.

Let’s look at the next book on the shortlist of the 2021 PEN Awards, which is Terroir: Love, Out of Place by Natasha Sajé. Why did these essays appeal?

One of the things that was appealing about this book is that’s it very much about, in every sense, the issues of the day: the idea of place, of where we are, how we are located on any map as individuals by ethnic identity, class, gender—all of those things. But rather than being carried forward in a narrowly argumentative way, again, in the classic manner of the essay, Sajé’s work is ruminative. It walks around these issues from the point of view of someone who’s an expatriate, someone who’s an émigré, someone who’s a world citizen, but who’s also concerned with the idea of ‘terroir’, the one place in the world where we belong. And I think the dialogue in her work between a kind of cosmopolitanism that she has along with her self-critical examination of the problem of localism and where we sit on the world, was inspiring to us.

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Last of the books on the shortlist for the 2021 Pen essay award is Maybe the People Would Be the Times by Luc Sante.

Again, here’s a writer who’s had a distinguished generalised career, writing about lots of places and about lots of subjects. In the past, he’s made his special preoccupation what he calls ‘low life’, but I think more broadly can be called the marginalized or the repressed and abject. He’s also written acute introductions to the literature of ‘low life’, the works of Asbury and David Maurer, for instance.

But I think one of the things that was appealing about what he’s done is the sheer range of his enterprise. He writes about countless subjects. He can write about A-sides and B-sides of popular records—singles—then go on to write about Jacques Rivette’s cinema. He writes from a kind of private inspection of public experience. He has a lovely piece about tabloid headlines and their evolution. And I think that omnivorous range of enthusiasms and passions is a stirring reminder in a time of specialization and compartmentalization of the essayist’s freedom to roam. If Pyle is in the tradition of Thoreau, I suspect Luc Sante would be proud to be put in the tradition of Baudelaire—the flaneur who walks the streets, sees everything, broods on it all and writes about it well.

One point of giving awards, with all their built-in absurdity and inevitable injustice, is to keep alive, or at least to keep passing, the small torches of literary tradition. And just as much as we’re honoring the great tradition of the naturalist essay in the one case, I think we’re honoring the tradition of the Baudelairean flaneur in this one.

April 18, 2021

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Adam Gopnik

Adam Gopnik has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1986. His many books include A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism . He is a three time winner of the National Magazine Award for Essays & Criticism, and in 2021 was made a chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur by the French Republic.

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‘January 6 Was Practice.’ The Atlantic Publishes Special Issue on American Democracy in Crisis.

Cover story by Barton Gellman on a Republican Party still in thrall to Donald Trump—and better positioned to subvert the next election than it was the last

“The next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024. Thousands of votes will be thrown away, or millions, to produce the required effect. The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified president-elect.

The prospect of this democratic collapse is not remote. People with the motive to make it happen are manufacturing the means. Given the opportunity, they will act. They are acting already. Who or what will safeguard our constitutional order is not apparent today. It is not even apparent who will try. Democrats, big and small D, are not behaving as if they believe the threat is real.”

In a new cover story for The Atlantic , anchoring a special issue of the magazine devoted to American democracy in crisis, staff writer Barton Gellman demonstrates with urgent clarity that Donald Trump, abetted by a complicit Republican Party, is gaining strength for a second attempt to seize office, and that he is better positioned to subvert an election now than he was in 2020. By pushing the Big Lie and enforcing its acceptance by the Republican Party, Trump has built the first American mass political movement in the past century that is ready to fight by any means necessary, including violence. January 6 was practice. Today, Gellman writes, there is a “clear and present danger that American democracy will not withstand the destructive forces that are now converging upon it.”

Gellman’s reporting describes how, over the past year, Trump and his allies have identified weak points in our electoral apparatus and worked methodically to exploit them. They have censured and removed officials who certified the election for Joe Biden or refused to “find” extra votes. They are testing new legal strategies to allow state legislatures to throw out the vote after it’s tallied and instead supply electors of their choice.

Central to this playbook, Gellman’s reporting shows, has been the revisionist narrative of the Big Lie, which has created what one researcher calls “a new, politically violent mass movement.” He writes: “The Trump team achieved something crucial and enduring by convincing tens of millions of angry supporters, including a catastrophic 68 percent of all Republicans in a November PRRI poll, that the election had been stolen from Trump. Nothing close to this loss of faith in democracy has happened here before. Even Confederates recognized Abraham Lincoln’s election; they tried to secede because they knew they had lost.”

The Atlantic is devoting much of the journalism in its January/February 2022 issue to the real threat that American democracy faces in 2024. In an editor’s note to lead the issue, editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg writes that the crisis is in good measure a crisis of the Republican Party. In its catastrophic turn toward authoritarianism, nativism, and conspiracism, the party now “threatens the republic that it was founded to save.” Goldberg continues: “A healthy democracy requires a strong conservative party and a strong liberal party arguing for their views publicly and vigorously. What we have instead today is a liberal party battling an authoritarian cult of personality.” Also appearing in the issue is a series of pieces that illuminate the political, moral, and cultural challenges we face. They will publish across the next several days and include:

Staff writer Tim Alberta ’s profile of freshman Republican Peter Meijer, who in the days after January 6 believed that he was part of a mission to rescue the party from itself. Now he laughs at his own naïveté.

An investigation by staff writer Vann R. Newkirk II into the extraordinary Republican efforts to prove that voter fraud is real, systemic, and being committed on a massive scale. Newkirk documents that these false notions have become an excuse to enact laws that make voting harder for everyone, but especially for voters of color, those who are poor, those who are old, and those who were not born in the U.S.

Staff writer Kaitlyn Tiffany on the conspiratorial thinking that has led well-meaning Americans to raise awareness about a child-sex-trafficking epidemic that simply does not exist.  Kicked into motion by QAnon, the present panic has been sustained by wildly inflated statistics that are passed along on social media. Tiffany asks how a moral panic in the age of the social web comes to an end. Once started, does a panic continue in motion, possibly cleaving communities along lines of those who believe the panic and those who reject it?

And an essay by David Brooks , who writes that the rich philosophical tradition of conservatism that he fell in love with has been reduced to Fox News and voter suppression. “To be a conservative today,” he says, “you have to oppose much of what the Republican Party has come to stand for.”

In “ January 6 Was Practice ,” Gellman writes: “Our two-party system has only one party left that is willing to lose an election. The other is willing to win at the cost of breaking things that a democracy cannot live without. Democracies have fallen before under stresses like these, when the people who might have defended them were transfixed by disbelief. If ours is to stand, its defenders have to rouse themselves.”

The Atlantic ’s special January/February 2022 issue is launching today, and will publish online over the next two weeks. Please be in touch with questions or requests to interview our writers about this reporting.

University of Notre Dame

College of Arts & Letters

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Political scientists' essays on democracy draw attention to critical threats, explore safeguards ahead of Jan. 6

Published: March 25, 2024

Author: Tracy DeStazio

Following the events of Jan. 6, 2021 — when a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an effort to interrupt the certification process of the 2020 presidential election — experts began to question how to protect the next presidential election from a similar threat. To that end, University of Notre Dame political scientists have partnered with preeminent scholars of democracy from across the country to produce a set of recommendations to strengthen and safeguard democracy in America.

The University’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy established the January 6th, 2025, Project in an effort to understand the social, political, psychological and demographic factors that led to that troublesome day in our nation’s capital. By pursuing research, teaching and public engagement, the project offers insight into how American democracy got to this point and how to strengthen and protect it, while emphasizing how to prepare for a similar attack many deem imminent on Jan. 6, 2025, when Congress seeks to certify the 2024 presidential election results. The project includes 34 members who represent various disciplines and leading universities — 10 of whom hail from Notre Dame’s faculty.

Matthew E.K. Hall , director of the Rooney Center, said one of the project’s first goals was to create a collection of essays written by its members to be included in a special issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , which was published this month. These essays aim to draw attention to the vulnerabilities in our democratic system and the threats building against it, and to create consensus on ways to remedy both problems.

The authors set out to tackle the following tough questions, but from different perspectives: How serious are the threats to our democracy, how did we get to this point, and what can we do to fix the situation? The 14 essays are broken down into categories, falling under the headings of “‘Us’ Versus ‘Them,’” “Dangerous Ideas” and “Undermining Democratic Institutions.” With most pieces being co-authored by faculty from multiple institutions, the collection offers a collaborative approach to evaluating what led America to this crisis and how to avert it.

David Campbell , director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative and the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy in the Department of Political Science , described the project as “an example of how Notre Dame can be a national leader on the issue of preserving American democracy. Not only do we have top scholars working on the issue, but we can provide a forum for a community of scholars across many leading universities. Maintaining democracy will require all hands on deck.”

In the collection’s introduction, Hall explained the backdrop of what led America to this point and why these essays help acknowledge the challenges we are facing as a nation. “We are basically living through a revival of fascist politics in the U.S.,” Hall wrote, “where politicians are using divisive rhetoric to separate us into an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ paradigm — left versus right, white versus Black, rich versus poor, urban versus rural, religious versus secular — the divisions go on and on.”

“Maintaining democracy will require all hands on deck.” ~ David Campbell

Hall estimated that between 25 and 30 percent of Americans have consistently endorsed some fascist ideas such as racial oppression, conspiracy theories and authoritarianism. “Ordinarily, this consistent minority is held in check by the democratic process,” Hall explained. “These candidates don’t even get nominated for major political positions because their co-partisan allies don’t want to lose the general election.

“But when our politics become this intensely polarized, most partisans will support their party no matter who is nominated,” he continued. “As a result, politicians pushing these fascist ideas can gain power by taking over one political party and then exploiting the polarization to win elections. Once taking power, they will likely manipulate the electoral process to remain in power.”

Consequently, Hall said, fascist leaders are able to exploit these social divisions to break down basic social norms and shared understandings about American politics. This pushes huge swaths of society toward accepting dangerous ideas that would normally be rejected, such as expanded executive power, intense animosity toward political opponents, a wavering support for free speech, and political candidates who deny election losses. This weakened support for democratic norms enables attacks on our democratic institutions, such as ignoring court rulings, enacting voter suppression laws and — most shockingly (as in the case of Jan. 6) — openly subverting elections.

With the political situation as dire as many feel it to be, the January 6th, 2025, Project’s essays outline a few practical steps that can be taken to strengthen and safeguard democracy in America.

For example, Hall said, as the nation moves forward into this next election year, American voters have to stay focused on the “deliberate denial of reality” on the part of some politicians so that they can discern the difference between lies, truths and just plain distractions.

“The more we lose touch with basic facts and accept misinformation, conspiracies and contradictory claims as the norm in our society,” he said, “the more vulnerable we are to losing our democracy.

“Even more importantly, we have to be willing to sacrifice short-term political gains in order to preserve the long-term stability of our democracy. That might mean holding your nose to vote for candidates that you would not otherwise support.”

Hall added that Americans must redouble their devotion to democratic principles such as open elections and free speech, and states should adopt institutional reforms that remove partisans from the electoral process (for example, employing nonpartisan election commissions). He also noted the importance of paying close attention to efforts that divide groups of Americans, especially those that portray outgroup members as evil or less than human.

“The public needs to take these critical threats seriously and we’re hoping that these essays draw attention to them, and help to build consensus about the underlying problems in our politics and potential remedies.” ~ Matthew E.K. Hall

The members of the project hope that by honestly acknowledging the challenges our nation is facing, understanding the mistakes that were made and recognizing the vulnerabilities in our system that led us to this situation — and by resolving to fix these issues — we can pull our country’s political system back from the edge of the cliff before it’s too late.

“The public needs to take these critical threats seriously and we’re hoping that these essays draw attention to them, and help to build consensus about the underlying problems in our politics and potential remedies,” Hall concluded.

Notre Dame faculty who are members of the January 6th, 2025, Project include David Campbell , the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy; Darren Davis , the Snyder Family Mission Professor of Political Science; Luis Fraga , the Rev. Donald P. McNeill, C.S.C., Professor in Transformative Latino Leadership; Matthew E.K. Hall , the David A. Potenziani Memorial College Professor of Constitutional Studies; Jeffrey Harden , the Andrew J. McKenna Family Associate Professor of Political Science; Geoffrey Layman , professor and chair of the Department of Political Science; Rachel Porter , assistant professor of political science; Ricardo Ramirez , associate professor of political science; Erin Rossiter , the Nancy Reeves Dreux Assistant Professor of Political Science; and Christina Wolbrecht , the C. Robert and Margaret Hanley Family Director of the Notre Dame Washington Program and professor of political science.

Democracy is one of several University-wide initiatives emerging from Notre Dame’s recently released Strategic Framework . The Democracy Initiative will further establish Notre Dame as a global leader in the study of democracy, a convenor for conversations about and actions to preserve democracy, and a model for the formation of civically engaged citizens and public servants. The Democracy Initiative will connect research, education and policy work across multiple campus units and will extend Notre Dame’s voice to policymakers and federal agencies in Washington, D.C.

Contact:  Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or [email protected]

Originally published by Tracy DeStazio at news.nd.edu on March 25, 2024 .

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2021 Winning Essay By Anna Dougherty

Press Release 2021 Winning Essay List of Winners, Finalists, Semifinalists, Honorable Mentions

By Anna Dougherty Paul VI High School in  Haddonfield, New Jersey

U.S. President John F. Kennedy told us, “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.” (“John F. Kennedy Quotations”) America honors many courageous people who have brought about much-needed change in our country, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but what about those brave individuals whose actions go unnoticed and unremembered by many of the American people—those whose struggles and efforts are passed by because they have not commanded the undivided attention of the country? One such person is former mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Dana Redd.  

     One could say Redd’s political career began in 1976 at the age of eight when she received a letter from her father while he and her mother were on a weekend vacation. In the letter, he asked his daughter to one day do something extraordinary that would restore Camden to the way he once knew it. (Aleardi). The tragic death, or possibly murder, of her parents that weekend would instill the motivation for her to later carry out her father’s wishes for her hometown. 

     Decades later, on January 5, 2010, Democrat Dana Redd became the first black woman to hold the mayoral position in Camden. (DiUlio) It was the first of many unprecedented things she would accomplish during her two terms as mayor. Redd had been given charge of a city filled with crime, poverty, and violence. As mayor, she now had the resources to change all of this. In 2013, with one year left in her first term, Redd made the radical decision to disband the entire Camden Police Department. (DiUlio) There were many factors that led up to this decision, such as police not responding to calls and a significant number of officers not showing up to work. (“Camden Gambles on Firing Police”) Overall, there had been 5,927 crime incidents in Camden during the previous year. (“Camden Crime Rate Report”) That made Camden one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. (“Camden Ranks Most Dangerous City”) 

     Redd did not jump to the drastic decision to lay off the whole police department and rebuild it without thinking it through. She “had spent several months trying to negotiate concessions with public safety unions that might have prevented the layoffs…But the unions wouldn’t submit, and Redd maintained that she had no choice but to proceed with the firings.” (DiUlio) Redd’s plan involved firing the current police force, rehiring some, and making a county-run police department. 

     There were many in opposition to this plan, from local officials to criminal justice experts to Camden citizens. The chair at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Maria Haberfield, said, “Creating a new department is a completely misguided approach to effective policing.” (Maciag)  

     The president of the police union, John Williamson, also expressed his concerns. He said, “Not only are you playing with people’s lives, you’re playing with the public’s lives.” (“Camden Mayor’s Decision to Dismantle Police Force Stirs Up Controversy”) Some citizens formed a petition to stop the dismantling of the police department. (Landergan) However, Redd stood firm in her decision to disband the department in spite of her plan’s unpopularity and even danger. “I think there were times when she feared for her own safety, but she put the residents’ interests first,” said Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. (Aleardi) 

     Redd faced the challenges Kennedy highlighted in his book, Profiles in Courage ​​, as the very definition of politically courageous acts. The first one he discussed was “a form of pressure rarely recognized by the general public.” (Kennedy) Redd certainly faced public opposition by Camden citizens, as nothing like this had ever been done before in New Jersey. The second thing Kennedy elaborated on was the uncertainty of re-election. Even though Redd’s first term was coming to an end, she still made the unpopular decision to disband the Camden Police Department: “I don’t make my decisions based on [my] re-election prospects...I’m not positioning myself for re-election. I’m just doing what I think is best for Camden.” (Camden Gambles On Firing Police”) She was doing what she believed to be best for her city, even if it could cost her the election. Finally, Kennedy wrote, the third challenge was “the pressure of his constituency, the interest groups, the organized letter writers, the economic blocs, and even the average voter. To cope with such pressures, to defy them or even to satisfy them, is a formidable task.” (Kennedy) Redd was under the scrutiny of many. “Because it’s never been done before, we’re being watched nationally and statewide,” she noted. (“Camden Gambles On Firing Police”)  

     Redd’s decision to disband and reform the Camden Police Department did in fact help the city. According to police data, in the first quarter of 2014, after her plan went into effect, crime rates dropped significantly. For example, incidents of violent crime dropped from 398 to 304, and car robberies were reduced by nearly half. (Aleardi) 

     In 2020, Redd’s work in Camden is still looked to as a good example of police reform. With the well-publicized death of George Floyd at the hands of a few Minneapolis police, it became obvious to many that some police officers needed to be educated in more humane tactics. The city looked to Redd’s work for inspiration; as described in the Philadelphia Inquirer , “When the Minneapolis City Council pledged…to disband that city’s troubled police department, some law enforcement experts and others pointed to Camden.” (Steele and Walsh)  

     Even though Redd’s ideas were unpopular and controversial, she still did what she knew was right. Redd worked hard for the people who elected her and had Camden’s best interests at heart. Her actions and successful re-election are perfectly described by the words of John F. Kennedy: “The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people —faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment—faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect, honor, and ultimately recognize right.” (Kennedy)

                                                                           Bibliography 

Aleardi, Marianne. “Just Dana.” SJ Magazine , 30 Dec. 2019, sjmagazine.net/may-2014/camden-4. “Camden Crime Rate Report (New Jersey).” CityRating.com : Find the Best Places to Live in the USA, www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/new-jersey/camden.html. “Camden Gambles on Firing Police.” The Philadelphia Tribune , 3 Feb. 2013, www.phillytrib.com/news/camden-gambles-on-firing-police/article_3e5f44f9-8d8e-5515-981d-6 b81441de86f.html.​   “Camden Mayor's Decision To Dismantle City's Police Force Stirs Up Controversy.” Philadelphia, CBS . CBS Philly, 8 Aug. 2012, https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/08/08/camden-mayors-decision-to-dismantle-citys-police-force-stirs-up-controversy/.

“Camden Ranks Most Dangerous City In The Country.” Philadelphia, CBS . CBS Philly, 10 Feb. 2014, philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/02/10/camdens-crime-rate-makes-city-most-dangerous-in-the-country/.

DiUlio, Nick. “Doing the Right Thing.” Rutgers Magazine , 2016, ucmweb.rutgers.edu/magazine/1419archive/features/doing-the-right-thing.html.  

“John F. Kennedy Quotations.” John F. Kennedy Quotations | JFK Library , www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/life-of-john-f-kennedy/john-f-kennedy-quotations.  

Kennedy, John F. “Profiles in Courage: Kennedy, John F.: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive , 2015, archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.460987/page/n19/mode/2up.  

Landergan, Katherine. “The City That Really Did Abolish the Police.” POLITICO , 12 June 2020, www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/12/camden-policing-reforms-313750.  

Maciag, Mike. “Why Camden, N.J., the Murder Capital of the Country, Disbanded Its Police Force.” Governing , 2014, www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-camden-disbands-police-force-for-new-department.html.

Steel, Allison, and Sean Collins Walsh. “Camden Disbanded Its Police Department and Built a New One. Can Others Learn from It?” The Philadelphia Inquirer , 14 June 2020, www.inquirer.com/news/camden-police-defund-minneapolis-george-floyd-protest-20200609.html.

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Sarmed Hyder

August 14th, 2021, essay competition 2021.

10 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Our Annual Essay Competition has returned!

Essay Question 2021:

To what extent have emerging social movements caused politicians to respond with effective social change .

• £100 Amazon Voucher
• Certificate signed by Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, Head of the LSE Department of Government
• Essay published in the LSEUPR blog
• The opportunity to attend and to present your essay at the LSEUPR Annual Conference
• £50 Amazon Voucher
• £25 Amazon Voucher
• Exploration:  this is a chance to engage with the topic and to explore your ideas and thoughts in a new way, outside the confines of academic stress from examinations and grades.
• Experience:  for those of you wishing to apply to university, this essay competition is a chance to produce an evidence-based, long form piece of writing. This is exactly the kind of work you will be regularly asked to produce at university, LSE or elsewhere!
• Prestige:  taking part in this competition is an achievement in itself and something that you can discuss in interviews, on your CV, and your personal statement for university.

Eligibility

• You must be yet to complete your A-Level studies, IB or equivalent, i.e. about to begin year 12 or 13 of secondary school or equivalent.
• Students from any country are allowed to enter, the competition is not limited to the UK, but is limited by level of study.

How to Enter:

Submission specifics:.

• Must be written in English.
• Please note: any in-text citations, footnotes and headings are included in the word count, but the title, bibliography and appendix, if applicable, are not included.
• Arial font, sized 12.
• Standard 1-inch margins.
• Submit essay as a PDF.
• It is extremely important to cite your sources. You are free to use any established referencing style (APA, Chicago, Harvard), as long as its use is consistent.
• Ensure that the PDF essay entry is completely anonymised, there should not be any personal details such as name or school attended included within the PDF.
• This is an independent piece of work. While you are free to discuss the topic with your peers/teacher, the final submission ultimately needs to be your own work. Plagiarism is a serious case of academic misconduct and will be met with disqualification.
• Submissions that are explicitly biased, agenda-fuelled, or without strong supporting evidence, are discouraged – scholarly essays are not columnist opinion pieces.

Essay Writing: 

• General guidance on academic essay writing: https://info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/lse-life/resources/podcasts/academic-writing-basic-principles
• Developing your essay thesis: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/developing-thesis

Structuring your essay:

• https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/essay-structure
• https://info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/lse-life/resources/podcasts/essay-writing-planning-and-structure

Writing a clear introduction:

• https://info.lse.ac.uk/current-students/lse-life/resources/podcasts/essay-writing-the-introduction

Ensuring your essay is clear and easy to follow:

• https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/topic-sentences-and-signposting
• https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/transitioning-beware-velcro

Writing an impactful conclusion:

• https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/ending-essay-conclusions

Editing your essay:

• https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/editing-essay-part-one
• https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/editing-essay-part-tw
• https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/developing-thesis

Referencing your Essay

General overview:   https://student.unsw.edu.au/referencing

• Chicago: Chicago Manual of Style (17 th Edition): https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/chicago_manual_of_style_17th_edition.html
• https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_a
• https://student.unsw.edu.au/apa
• Harvard : Harvard style https://student.unsw.edu.au/harvard-referencing
• Footnotes & bibliographies: https://student.unsw.edu.au/footnote-bibliography-or-oxford-referencing-system

Topic Specific Resources:

The study of social movements is vast and it can be difficult to know where to start. If you are unsure of where to begin, here are some resources that can kick off your research:

LSE Research on Social movements 

• https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/research/smpm/papers ]
• http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/88297/1/Ishkanian_Social%20Movements_Accepted.pdf
• http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/29695/1/__Libfile_repository_Content_Campbell,%20C_Heeding%20the%20push_Heeding%20the%20push%20(lsero).pdf

Background on social movements and effective change: 

• https://hbr.org/2017/01/how-protests-become-successful-social-movements
• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-lsquo-good-rsquo-social-movements-can-triumph-over-lsquo-bad-rsquo-ones/

Background on specific examples of critical social movements: 

• https://harvardpolitics.com/rhodes-must-fall/
• https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/rhodes-must-fall-founder-racist-statues/
• https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/BLM
• https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2016/08/15/the-hashtag-blacklivesmatter-emerges-social-activism-on-twitter/
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-51004204
• https://thewire.in/law/jnu-sedition-case-umar-khalid-kanhaiya-kumar-delhi-court
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-51005444
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47952787
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34592527
• https://globalclimatestrike.net/

Examples of responses to protests: 

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-57189928
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-57175057
• https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jcpy.1201

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10 Comments

Hi, when will results be announced? Before Oct. 15th which is oxbridge application deadline?

Hi there! Thank you so much for your interest in the essay competition. We are aiming to complete the review process before the 15th October deadline for the benefit of Year 13 students but we cannot guarantee that this will happen. However, we would still strongly recommend that you submit a piece as partaking in prestigious essay competitions (such as this!) can add a lot to your personal statement.

I hope this helps!

Hi, there! May I ask whether I have to focus on BLM movement as stated below the question, or can come up with totally new social movements that I want to deal with? Thank you:)

Thank you for your question! You absolutely do not have to focus on the BLM movement. You can choose to talk about any social movement you like: such as the Climate Strikes or the student-led gun control movement in the USA (March for Our Lives). You may even want to talk about a few! Do look at our ‘Topic Specific Resources’ section for more pointers on different types of social movements you could discuss. However, do remember to choose the social movements carefully and ensure they are relevant to the question and give you enough material to talk about.

Can the word count go a little over 1000 words?

Hi there! You should ensure that is it under 1000 words. Cutting down your essay is a very important skill and something you will have to do many times if you decide to go to university! Look for unnecessary words and sentences which are too long.

I have completed my essay on the Nirbhaya movement which occurred in 2012-2013. I couldn’t find any specific date details other that it needing to be recent . Is this okay? Thank you !

Hi there! That’s absolutely fine, we’re looking forward to reading your work soon!

Is a bibliography required?

Yes, when you cite a source in-text you must include it in a bibliography. Please look over the referencing resources above for more guidance on how to do citations and how to keep a bibliography properly.

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The Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2021

Featuring joan didion, rachel kushner, hanif abdurraqib, ann patchett, jenny diski, and more.

Well, friends, another grim and grueling plague year is drawing to a close, and that can mean only one thing: it’s time to put on our Book Marks stats hats and tabulate the best reviewed books of the past twelve months.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2021, in the categories of (deep breath): Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections ; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature; Literature in Translation; General Fiction; and General Nonfiction.

Today’s installment: Essay Collections .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (Harper)

21 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed Read Ann Patchett on creating the work space you need, here

“… excellent … Patchett has a talent for friendship and celebrates many of those friends here. She writes with pure love for her mother, and with humor and some good-natured exasperation at Karl, who is such a great character he warrants a book of his own. Patchett’s account of his feigned offer to buy a woman’s newly adopted baby when she expresses unwarranted doubts is priceless … The days that Patchett refers to are precious indeed, but her writing is anything but. She describes deftly, with a line or a look, and I considered the absence of paragraphs freighted with adjectives to be a mercy. I don’t care about the hue of the sky or the shade of the couch. That’s not writing; it’s decorating. Or hiding. Patchett’s heart, smarts and 40 years of craft create an economy that delivers her perfectly understated stories emotionally whole. Her writing style is most gloriously her own.”

–Alex Witchel ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion (Knopf)

14 Rave • 12 Positive • 6 Mixed Read an excerpt from Let Me Tell You What I Mean here

“In five decades’ worth of essays, reportage and criticism, Didion has documented the charade implicit in how things are, in a first-person, observational style that is not sacrosanct but common-sensical. Seeing as a way of extrapolating hypocrisy, disingenuousness and doubt, she’ll notice the hydrangeas are plastic and mention it once, in passing, sorting the scene. Her gaze, like a sentry on the page, permanently trained on what is being disguised … The essays in Let Me Tell You What I Mean are at once funny and touching, roving and no-nonsense. They are about humiliation and about notions of rightness … Didion’s pen is like a periscope onto the creative mind—and, as this collection demonstrates, it always has been. These essays offer a direct line to what’s in the offing.”

–Durga Chew-Bose ( The New York Times Book Review )

3. Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Viking)

12 Rave • 13 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Orwell’s Roses here

“… on its simplest level, a tribute by one fine essayist of the political left to another of an earlier generation. But as with any of Solnit’s books, such a description would be reductive: the great pleasure of reading her is spending time with her mind, its digressions and juxtapositions, its unexpected connections. Only a few contemporary writers have the ability to start almost anywhere and lead the reader on paths that, while apparently meandering, compel unfailingly and feel, by the end, cosmically connected … Somehow, Solnit’s references to Ross Gay, Michael Pollan, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Peter Coyote (to name but a few) feel perfectly at home in the narrative; just as later chapters about an eighteenth-century portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds and a visit to the heart of the Colombian rose-growing industry seem inevitable and indispensable … The book provides a captivating account of Orwell as gardener, lover, parent, and endlessly curious thinker … And, movingly, she takes the time to find the traces of Orwell the gardener and lover of beauty in his political novels, and in his insistence on the value and pleasure of things .”

–Claire Messud ( Harper’s )

4. Girlhood by Melissa Febos (Bloomsbury)

16 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Girlhood here

“Every once in a while, a book comes along that feels so definitive, so necessary, that not only do you want to tell everyone to read it now, but you also find yourself wanting to go back in time and tell your younger self that you will one day get to read something that will make your life make sense. Melissa Febos’s fierce nonfiction collection, Girlhood , might just be that book. Febos is one of our most passionate and profound essayists … Girlhood …offers us exquisite, ferocious language for embracing self-pleasure and self-love. It’s a book that women will wish they had when they were younger, and that they’ll rejoice in having now … Febos is a balletic memoirist whose capacious gaze can take in so many seemingly disparate things and unfurl them in a graceful, cohesive way … Intellectual and erotic, engaging and empowering[.]”

–Michelle Hart ( Oprah Daily )

5. Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told by Jenny Diski (Bloomsbury)

14 Rave • 7 Positive

“[Diski’s] reputation as an original, witty and cant-free thinker on the way we live now should be given a significant boost. Her prose is elegant and amused, as if to counter her native melancholia and includes frequent dips into memorable images … Like the ideal artist Henry James conjured up, on whom nothing is lost, Diski notices everything that comes her way … She is discerning about serious topics (madness and death) as well as less fraught material, such as fashion … in truth Diski’s first-person voice is like no other, selectively intimate but not overbearingly egotistic, like, say, Norman Mailer’s. It bears some resemblance to Joan Didion’s, if Didion were less skittish and insistently stylish and generated more warmth. What they have in common is their innate skepticism and the way they ask questions that wouldn’t occur to anyone else … Suffice it to say that our culture, enmeshed as it is in carefully arranged snapshots of real life, needs Jenny Diski, who, by her own admission, ‘never owned a camera, never taken one on holiday.’” It is all but impossible not to warm up to a writer who observes herself so keenly … I, in turn, wish there were more people around who thought like Diski. The world would be a more generous, less shallow and infinitely more intriguing place.”

–Daphne Merkin ( The New York Times Book Review )

6. The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner (Scribner)

12 Rave • 7 Positive Listen to an interview with Rachel Kushner here

“Whether she’s writing about Jeff Koons, prison abolition or a Palestinian refugee camp in Jerusalem, [Kushner’s] interested in appearances, and in the deeper currents a surface detail might betray … Her writing is magnetised by outlaw sensibility, hard lives lived at a slant, art made in conditions of ferment and unrest, though she rarely serves a platter that isn’t style-mag ready … She makes a pretty convincing case for a political dimension to Jeff Koons’s vacuities and mirrored surfaces, engages repeatedly with the Italian avant garde and writes best of all about an artist friend whose death undoes a spell of nihilism … It’s not just that Kushner is looking back on the distant city of youth; more that she’s the sole survivor of a wild crowd done down by prison, drugs, untimely death … What she remembers is a whole world, but does the act of immortalising it in language also drain it of its power,’neon, in pink, red, and warm white, bleeding into the fog’? She’s mining a rich seam of specificity, her writing charged by the dangers she ran up against. And then there’s the frank pleasure of her sentences, often shorn of definite articles or odd words, so they rev and bucket along … That New Journalism style, live hard and keep your eyes open, has long since given way to the millennial cult of the personal essay, with its performance of pain, its earnest display of wounds received and lessons learned. But Kushner brings it all flooding back. Even if I’m skeptical of its dazzle, I’m glad to taste something this sharp, this smart.”

–Olivia Laing ( The Guardian )

7. The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century by Amia Srinivasan (FSG)

12 Rave • 7 Positive • 5 Mixed • 1 Pan

“[A] quietly dazzling new essay collection … This is, needless to say, fraught terrain, and Srinivasan treads it with determination and skill … These essays are works of both criticism and imagination. Srinivasan refuses to resort to straw men; she will lay out even the most specious argument clearly and carefully, demonstrating its emotional power, even if her ultimate intention is to dismantle it … This, then, is a book that explicitly addresses intersectionality, even if Srinivasan is dissatisfied with the common—and reductive—understanding of the term … Srinivasan has written a compassionate book. She has also written a challenging one … Srinivasan proposes the kind of education enacted in this brilliant, rigorous book. She coaxes our imaginations out of the well-worn grooves of the existing order.”

–Jennifer Szalai ( The New York Times )

8. A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House)

13 Rave • 4 Positive Listen to an interview with Hanif Abdurraqib here

“[A] wide, deep, and discerning inquest into the Beauty of Blackness as enacted on stages and screens, in unanimity and discord, on public airwaves and in intimate spaces … has brought to pop criticism and cultural history not just a poet’s lyricism and imagery but also a scholar’s rigor, a novelist’s sense of character and place, and a punk-rocker’s impulse to dislodge conventional wisdom from its moorings until something shakes loose and is exposed to audiences too lethargic to think or even react differently … Abdurraqib cherishes this power to enlarge oneself within or beyond real or imagined restrictions … Abdurraqib reminds readers of the massive viewing audience’s shock and awe over seeing one of the world’s biggest pop icons appearing midfield at this least radical of American rituals … Something about the seemingly insatiable hunger Abdurraqib shows for cultural transaction, paradoxical mischief, and Beauty in Blackness tells me he’ll get to such matters soon enough.”

–Gene Seymour ( Bookforum )

9. On Animals by Susan Orlean (Avid Reader Press)

11 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed Listen to an interview with Susan Orlean here

“I very much enjoyed Orlean’s perspective in these original, perceptive, and clever essays showcasing the sometimes strange, sometimes sick, sometimes tender relationships between people and animals … whether Orlean is writing about one couple’s quest to find their lost dog, the lives of working donkeys of the Fez medina in Morocco, or a man who rescues lions (and happily allows even full grown males to gently chew his head), her pages are crammed with quirky characters, telling details, and flabbergasting facts … Readers will find these pages full of astonishments … Orlean excels as a reporter…Such thorough reporting made me long for updates on some of these stories … But even this criticism only testifies to the delight of each of the urbane and vivid stories in this collection. Even though Orlean claims the animals she writes about remain enigmas, she makes us care about their fates. Readers will continue to think about these dogs and donkeys, tigers and lions, chickens and pigeons long after we close the book’s covers. I hope most of them are still well.”

–Sy Montgomery ( The Boston Globe )

10. Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South  by Margaret Renkl (Milkweed Editions)

9 Rave • 5 Positive Read Margaret Renkl on finding ideas everywhere, here

“Renkl’s sense of joyful belonging to the South, a region too often dismissed on both coasts in crude stereotypes and bad jokes, co-exists with her intense desire for Southerners who face prejudice or poverty finally to be embraced and supported … Renkl at her most tender and most fierce … Renkl’s gift, just as it was in her first book Late Migrations , is to make fascinating for others what is closest to her heart … Any initial sense of emotional whiplash faded as as I proceeded across the six sections and realized that the book is largely organized around one concept, that of fair and loving treatment for all—regardless of race, class, sex, gender or species … What rises in me after reading her essays is Lewis’ famous urging to get in good trouble to make the world fairer and better. Many people in the South are doing just that—and through her beautiful writing, Renkl is among them.”

–Barbara J. King ( NPR )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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Can you trust 2024 election polls on Donald Trump and Joe Biden? Here's how to cut through the noise.

Love them or hate them, political polls aren’t going anywhere. As the 2024 presidential election kicks into high gear, the internet will be flooded with surveys tracking the horserace between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Keeping track of the numbers can be daunting: Who's ahead in national polls? Who's ahead in state-level surveys? Figuring out which numbers to pay attention to – and whether any of it actually matters – can be even more challenging.  

Luckily, the USA TODAY Network has got you covered. Here’s a refresher on why polls matter, whether you can trust them and what to look out for this year.  

What do polls tell us about the election?  

Think of polls as quick snapshots rather than crystal ball readings.  

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

They don’t necessarily predict the results of an election. Rather, they’re used to gauge how people feel about a race during a specific period. Pollsters may ask questions about the future, but surveys have more to say about the voters' current temperature.

Polls also tend to have a short shelf life. Public opinion can shift quickly, meaning that the results of polls are often only a reliable measure of the state of a race during the time they were taken. 

A survey taken two months ago won’t reflect the state of a race today, and a poll fielded tomorrow won’t tell us who is going to win the presidential election in November.

However, that doesn't mean polls captured at the beginning of a campaign cycle don't matter. The insights from early polls tease out the major issues voters are thinking about that could shape the race.  They also help trace the trendlines of how a candidate is performing – whether they’re gaining traction, stagnating or losing support. 

Pollster John Zogby likened the importance of looking at early polling to checking benchmarks while trying to reach an exercise goal.  

“Am I going to get on the scale the day before to see how I did?” said Zogby. “No, I get on the scale every so often to say what am I doing? How am I doing? What am I doing right?” 

Conducting polls early in a race and often throughout the course of an election allows political scientists, journalists and the public to track trends and spot major inflection points in campaigns.  

Beware of two-candidate polls  

Not all polls are built the same. The way a survey is designed, from how questions are worded to the demographics of the participants chosen, can influence the accuracy of its results.  

David Paleologos , director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said political polls are most accurate when they replicate as closely as possible the questions and options voters will see on their ballot.

For instance, he said that polls on the 2024 presidential election should include choices beyond the two major party candidates – Trump and Biden – because most ballots will contain third-party and independent candidates who will garner some support.  

“If the polls only show a binary choice, between Trump or Biden, you're not getting the full picture,” Paleologos said.

He pointed to close margins in critical swing states, including Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia, during the 2020 election as an example. Trump lost in those states by fewer votes than Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen received.  

If Jorgensen had not been in the race, the results in those battlegrounds, and possibly the outcome of the election nationally, could have looked markedly different, Paleologos said.

The Libertarian Party hasn’t yet chosen its candidate for the 2024 election. But early polls that include the party and other independent candidates as options are likely to more accurately show how disaffected voters are looking at their options, he explained.

Suffolk University and USA TODAY have a partnership collecting polling data and insights.

Who's being polled?

Another factor that can impact a poll’s accuracy is the sample population surveyed. Polls randomly select a small sample of people designed to represent the broader views and attitudes of a larger population. But every organization uses different methodologies to create their samples.  

For instance, some election polls take the temperature of the general population, while others only include active voters or likely voters. They also may weigh demographic information, such as the ratio of Democrats to Republicans, differently.  

In the 2024 race, Zogby, author of the forthcoming book "Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should," suggested that the most accurate polls include only likely voters, the pool of people already planning to cast a ballot in November.

“A likely voter today may not be a likely voter on October 31,” Zogby said, but capturing these voters allows political scientists to better understand the Americans who will choose the next president.

Should I pay attention to national polls or state surveys?

Pollsters were lambasted in 2016 for projecting that then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would win the election over Trump.

But national polls , which are supposed to reflect the popular vote across all states, were technically right. Overall, Clinton won nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump.  

So, what went wrong? Many analysts overstated Clinton’s lead in national polls, and few organizations conducted state-specific polls in former Democratic strongholds, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, that Trump was able to capture. His wins in those states ultimately landed him the electoral college victory.  

That’s not to say that national polls are inferior to state polls, but you should think of them differently.

“National polls are more valuable to understand what the issues are impacting likely voters,” Paleologos said, while state polls better represent the horserace.

He and other polling experts told USA TODAY that Biden needs to lead Trump by three to four percentage points in a national poll to be tied with the Republican in the electoral college . That's because large liberal-leaning states like California and New York tend to tilt the results of national polls in Democrats’ favor, whereas the "electoral college these days skews Republican," Zogby said.

In other words, a national poll showing Biden and Trump tied would tell a similar story to a swing state poll that shows Trump leading Biden by a few points.  But generally, experts warn against comparing national and state surveys, which are built off of different methodologies, against one another.

Can you trust the polls?  

Mostly. Because polls are analyzing a myriad of shifting factors, they'll always have some level of uncertainty baked in, regardless of the specific election. Organizations also don’t collaborate on what states they plan to poll, or when, which means there’s always potential for blind spots, like in 2016. 

Some political observers rely on poll averages, such as a tally from Real Clear Politics. These are generally reliable, but they can miss trends.

But when interpreted properly, polls often provide an accurate portrait of the state of an election. 

“There are folks that will say, ‘Oh, you missed the election by two points,’” Zogby said. "Well, two points – that showed the ballpark of what was going to happen.” 

And the more polls there are, the easier it is to evaluate the race.  

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Hope Hicks, ex-Trump adviser, recounts fear in 2016 campaign over impact of ‘Access Hollywood’ tape

Hope Hicks testified Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money case, recounting how she followed Trump from the real estate world to politics and how his 2016 presidential campaign was turned upside down following a leak of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. Testimony resumes on Monday.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial has clarified the gag order pertaining to the ex-president doesn’t prohibit him from testifying on his own behalf.

Hope Hicks, a former longtime adviser to Donald Trump, took the witness stand Friday in his criminal trial, where prosecutors are expected to question her about her knowledge of hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

As he walked into court on Friday, Donald Trump clarified the comments he made a day earlier, saying that the gag order he is under in his New York hush money trial does not stop him from testifying in the case.

FILE - Hope Hicks, former White House Communications Director, arrives to meet with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 27, 2018. Prosecutors say Hicks spoke with former President Donald Trump by phone during a frenzied effort to keep allegations of his marital infidelity out of the press after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape leaked weeks before the 2016 election. In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing women without permission. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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Former President Donald Trump speaks to media as he returns to his trial at the Manhattan Criminal Court, Friday, May 3, 2024, in New York. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Manhattan criminal court, Friday, May 3, 2024, in New York. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday,, May 3, 2024.(Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign was seized with worry about the potential political damage from a tape that showed Trump bragging about grabbing women sexually without their permission, longtime Trump adviser Hope Hicks testified Friday at his hush money trial.

Hicks, a former White House official, was compelled to testify by Manhattan prosecutors, who are hoping her remarks bolster their argument that the uproar over the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape hastened Trump’s then-lawyer to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels to bury a negative story that could imperil his 2016 presidential bid.

Once one of Trump’s closest confidants, Hicks provided a window into the chaotic fallout over the tape’s release just days before a crucial debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton. It was recorded in 2005 but was not seen by the public until Oct. 7, 2016, about a month before Election Day. Hicks described being stunned and huddling with other Trump advisers after learning about the tape’s existence from the Washington Post reporter who broke the story. Hicks forwarded the reporter’s request to campaign leadership with the recommendation to “deny, deny, deny,” she said.

“I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days,” Hicks testified. “This was a damaging development.”

She added: “This was just pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”

What to know about Trump’s hush money trial:

• Trump faces jail threat over gag order. Follow today’s live updates .
• A guide to terms used in the Trump trial.
• Trump is the first ex-president on criminal trial. Here’s what to know about the hush money case.
• Trump is facing four criminal indictments, and a civil lawsuit. You can track all of the cases here.

Prosecutors called her to the witness stand to strengthen their case alleging Trump worked to prevent damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sought to establish that link not just to secure a conviction but also to persuade the public of the significance of the case, which may be the only one of four Trump prosecutions to reach trial this year.

Hope Hicks (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Hicks told jurors that Trump claimed he did not know anything about his then-attorney Michael Cohen paying $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from going public with claims of a sexual encounter with Trump. But, Hicks said, Trump eventually came to believe that burying Daniels’ story was prudent, saying he thought “it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.”

At other points, Hicks’ testimony appeared to help the defense’s contention that the former president was trying to protect his reputation and family — not his campaign — by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which he has slammed as an effort to derail his campaign to reclaim the White House in November.

Under questioning by Trump’s attorney, Hicks told jurors that he was worried about the effect of the “Access Hollywood” tape on his family. And when the Wall Street Journal published a story revealing ex-Playboy Model Karen McDougal’s affair allegations right before the election, Hicks said Trump was concerned about his wife seeing the story and asked Hicks to make sure newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence that morning.

But when asked if Trump was also worried about the story’s impact on the campaign, Hicks responded that everything they spoke about during that time was viewed through the lens of the campaign. Trump would often asking her, “How is it playing?” as a way of gauging how his appearances, speeches and policies were landing with voters, she said.

Hicks’ proximity to Trump over the years has made her a figure of interest to congressional and criminal investigators alike, who have sought her testimony on multiple occasions on topics ranging from Russian election interference to Trump’s election loss and the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

She appeared reluctant to be in the courtroom, taking a deep breath as she stepped up to the microphone and acknowledging she was “really nervous.” She later started crying on the witness stand, forcing the court to take a brief break, when Trump lawyer Emil Bove started to ask her to reflect on her time at the Trump Organization before he brought her onto his 2016 campaign.

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Friday, May 3, 2024. (Charly Triballeau/Pool Photo via AP)

Referring to her former boss as “Mr. Trump” and later “President Trump” when speaking about their time in the White House, she told the court she last communicated with him in the summer or fall of 2022. While no longer in Trump’s inner circle, Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms as the prosecutor began questioning her about her background.

She recounted how the political firestorm that ensued after the release of the tape was so intense that it knocked an actual storm out of the headlines. Before the tape became public, the news was dominated by a Category 4 hurricane that was charging toward the East Coast.

“I don’t think anybody remembers” where that hurricane hit, Hicks told jurors.

Hurricane Matthew, which hit Haiti and Cuba as a Category 4 storm, made landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane on Oct. 8, 2016, the day after the “Access Hollywood” tape was made public.

Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case charging Trump with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid Daniels for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.

Testimony will resume Monday. The trial could last another month or more, with important witnesses who have yet to be called, including Cohen and Daniels.

One of the most pivotal pieces of evidence disclosed to jurors this week was a recording of a meeting between Trump and Cohen before the 2016 election in which they discussed a plan to purchase the rights to McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer so that it would never come out. The tabloid had previously bought McDougal’s story to bury it on Trump’s behalf.

At one point, Trump can be heard saying: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”

In a victory for Trump just as court was ending for the week, Judge Juan M. Merchan denied a request by prosecutors to ask Trump, should he choose to testify, about being held in contempt of court for gag order violations in the case. Merchan said allowing it would be “so prejudicial it would be very, very difficult for the jury to look past that.”

Trump this week paid his $9,000 fine for violating the gag order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the case.

His attorney, Todd Blanche, told the judge Friday they are appealing the finding that Trump violated the gag order. Blanche said that they took particular issue with penalties for what are known as reposts — instances where Trump shared someone else’s post with his followers.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Colleen Long in Washington and Ruth Brown and Michelle Price in New York contributed to this report.

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Cara Delevingne Goes Undercover in Bejeweled Chainmail Top (with a Full Hood!) at 2024 Met Gala

The actress — who frequently serves up memorable looks at the annual fashion event — wore Stella McCartney on the red carpet

Erin Clack is a Staff Editor for PEOPLE. She has been writing about fashion, parenting and pop culture for more than 15 years.

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Cara Delevingne rocked a power outfit on the 2024 Met Gala red carpet!

The model and actress, 31, stepped out to this year’s gala — themed “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” — in an armor-inspired hooded top covered in crystals. She paired the midriff-baring Stella McCartney look with a long white column skirt featuring a train, and added stacks of glittery bangles on both of her wrists for a little extra sparkle.

Delevingne sported soft glam, overseen by makeup artist Pat McGrath, including natural color on her cheeks and winged liner to accentuate her eyes. The American Horror Story posed for playful photos on the carpet with McCartney, as well as with Ed Sheeran and FKA twigs .

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

At the 2023 Met Gala, Delevingne showed out for her longtime friend Karl Lagerfeld , who was the inspiration behind the year’s theme: “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.”

The Paper Towns star wore a reimagined white button-up shirt — a favorite and staple of her designer pal — complete with dramatic sleeves and plunging neckline, all by Karl Lagerfeld Couture.

The actress paired the shirt-dress with black leather leg warmers that reached her thighs, black strappy sandals and stacks of silver jewelry.

See all of PEOPLE’s Star-Studded Met Gala Coverage in One Place!

Cleverly, she complemented her leg warmers with another Lagerfeld favorite: matching fingerless black leather gloves.

For hair and makeup, the star changed up her usual look dramatically, sporting a green-tinted platinum shag and a bold black-and-metallic eye look.

Speaking about her look — and ode to Lagerfeld — with Vogue on the red carpet, Delevingne revealed that she “cried on the way here a little bit.”

“It's kind of like, it's a wonderful thing to be able to do this, and he's such an incredible person. Not only in fashion but personally as a friend,” she said. “I owe him so much and it's an amazing way to remember him.”

Theo Wargo/Getty

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Some of Delevingne’s other Met Gala looks have included a gold body paint look that left very little to the imagination and a more overtly political look .

In 2021, the Only Murders in the Building star made a statement at the gala in her Dior Haute Couture white trousers and matching breastplate, worn with white Dior heels. Her breastplate featured the phrase “Peg the Patriarchy.”

Local election results: The story so far in maps and charts

With almost all of the council results in, what do they tell us about how the country has changed?

By Prof Will Jennings, Sky News election analyst, and the Sky News data unit

Friday 3 May 2024 13:08, UK

It has been a Conservative collapse. They have lost the Blackpool South by-election, and more than half of the council seats and councils that they were defending.

If results continue like this it could be the party's worst-ever local elections.

All of today's expected mayoral election results have been called, with seven more to come over the weekend - including the London Mayor result.

So far, Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has been re-elected, while Labour have won the inaugural North East; York and North Yorkshire; and East Midlands mayoral races.

Labour has made gains in local councils although there have also been losses in some areas, and many Conservative losses have been falling to smaller parties and independents.

The Greens have made gains in terms of councillors, but no councils.

The Lib Dems have taken control of Tunbridge Wells council and maintained control of nine others, including Eastleigh , Hampshire, and Hull , showing they can threaten the Conservatives in certain areas - but have failed to make significant gains.

With now more than two million votes counted, we can estimate the national estimated share of the vote and compare it to the 2019 general election.

The Conservatives have plummeted to just 26% of the estimated share, one of their worst local election performances on record.

But the fall for the Conservatives has not entirely gone to Labour, who are only marginally up on the 2019 general election result by two points on these figures - it's the other parties that have benefitted because of that.

So what would this mean at a general election?

Labour would still fall short of an overall majority.

When we take those numbers and assume that the voter swing is uniform across all constituencies, we see that although Labour has made gains and Conservatives would lose seats, Labour is still short of the 326 seats it needs to form a majority Labour government.

Of course, in reality not all constituencies will behave in exactly the same way, as seen in the different ward level swings.

But it does tell us the scale of Labour's challenge as we approach another general election. Because of a poor performance in 2019, they have a lot of ground to make up to win even a small majority.

They have made some important gains, however.

Labour has gained control of ten councils in total, including Redditch in the West Midlands, and Rushmoor in Hampshire - the home of the British Army, which they took directly from the Conservatives.

Rushmoor had never previously been under Labour control in the 50-year history of the council, and had been under Conservative majority control since 2000. Even Tony Blair failed to ever win there.

Labour did however lose Oldham , and Kirklees, which are now under no overall control. They also failed to win key target seats like Harlow in Essex.

The Conservatives are at their lowest number of seats ever recorded in Portsmouth - Tory minister Penny Mordaunt's backyard, and also in Peterborough .

They lost 13 seats in Peterborough but Labour only made four gains, with seven seats going to independents, and one each to the Greens and Lib Dems.

Tories lose Blackpool South with third highest swing since war

The Conservatives lost the Blackpool South by-election , with a swing to Labour of 26.3%.

It's the seventh by-election loss direct to Labour since the last time these same council seats were up in 2021. Six of those losses have seen swings among the 10 highest recorded since the Second World War.

Reform recorded their highest ever vote share, of 16.9%. They had only been above 10% once, in Kingswood earlier this year. They are currently polling 12.4% nationally according to the Sky News poll tracker .

The result in Blackpool South is consistent with this national polling, and similar to how UKIP performed in the seat in 2015. But a better result may have been expected given the circumstances of the election - an MP from the governing party forced to resign over corruption issues.

Unwinding the Conservatives' 2019 electoral coalition

The Conservatives are performing worst - and Labour best - in areas that voted most strongly to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.

Labour is also performing stronger in areas with fewer graduates and with more people in working-class occupations.

This points to Labour perhaps being able to translate their votes more efficiently to seats in a general election, where it needs to win back many working class, leave voting areas that turned to the Conservatives last time around.

Labour's progress looks significant when compared with the last time these seats were up in 2021, as would be expected with the party 20 points ahead in the polls, but if we compare with last year's local elections it is more limited.

Among the wards we have results for so far their vote is up almost six percentage points compared with 2021, but down compared with 2023.

They are also currently losing votes from last year in areas with higher Muslim populations.

Mayoral elections

As well as council elections, electors have been voting for London mayor, nine Combined Authority mayors and for Salford City mayor.

Today we have had results from Tees Valley, the North East, York and North Yorkshire and East Midlands, with Labour taking all but Tees Valley.

Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen was re-elected with a healthy majority of 18,789 (12.3%).

The Conservatives will be relieved with this result, but there is some cause for caution when looking at Westminster constituencies in the area.

Houchen's majority has shrunk by nearly three quarters, from 46% in 2021 (based on first preference votes received under the former Supplementary Vote system) to 12% today.

This was a swing of 16 points towards Labour compared to 2021. Other Conservative members of parliament elected in 2019 to represent constituencies in the Tees Valley area had much smaller majorities than Houchen achieved in 2021, and would not survive a similar level of voter swing to Labour if replicated at the next election.

Meanwhile, Labour have won the inaugural North East Mayor and York and North Yorkshire mayoral races.

There are several council results still to come, as well as the rest of the mayors (and don't forget the police and crime commissioners), so keep checking back on this page which we'll be keeping updated throughout the course of the weekend.

Charts, analysis and reporting by Prof Will Jennings, Daniel Dunford, Joely Santa Cruz and Conor O'Neill.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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Republicans Call on NPR’s C.E.O. to Testify About Political Bias Accusations

Katherine Maher, the radio network’s new chief executive, has been in the spotlight since an editor published an essay accusing the organization of leftward-leaning bias.

By Benjamin Mullin

Congressional Republicans on Wednesday said they had asked NPR’s new chief executive, Katherine Maher, to address accusations of political bias in the radio network’s journalism during a hearing next week.

A trio of Republican lawmakers — Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Bob Latta of Ohio and Morgan Griffith of Virginia — sent a six-page letter to Ms. Maher that notified her of an investigation into the network and requested her appearance on May 8.

“As a taxpayer funded, public radio organization, NPR should focus on fair and objective news reporting that both considers and reflects the views of the larger U.S. population and not just a niche audience,” the letter said.

The lawmakers, all members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the hearing would be held by the panel’s oversight subcommittee.

NPR declined to comment, but Ms. Maher may have a scheduling conflict. According to an agenda of NPR’s upcoming board of directors meeting, Ms. Maher is scheduled to convene with NPR’s board all day on May 8.

NPR has been scrutinized by conservatives in recent weeks after the publication of an essay by Uri Berliner , a former senior editor at the network, who said that the network had allowed progressive politics to affect its coverage of major stories. Mr. Berliner, who has since resigned, cited the network’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Hunter Biden’s laptop as examples of bias.

Mr. Berliner’s essay has generated vociferous pushback from many employees at NPR, who say that many of his points were factually inaccurate. Tony Cavin, NPR’s managing editor for standards, has said the network’s coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop, the Covid-19 pandemic and the investigation into Russian collusion by Robert S. Mueller III, a special counsel, hewed closely to responsible coverage by other mainstream news organizations.

Ms. Maher, who joined the network this year, has personally been targeted by conservative activists who have combed through her social media history and resurfaced posts that promoted progressive causes and critiqued former President Donald J. Trump. In one post, from 2018, Ms. Maher called Mr. Trump a “racist”; another from 2020 showed her wearing a hat with the logo of the Biden campaign.

NPR has said that Ms. Maher, the former chief executive of Wikimedia, wasn’t working in news at the time she made the posts, and added that she was exercising her First Amendment right to free expression.

Over the years, Republicans have occasionally threatened to pull government money from NPR, which comes from the taxpayer-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But those threats haven’t resulted in any significant funding reduction for the organization, which generates much of its revenue by selling radio programming to its member stations across the United States.

Benjamin Mullin reports on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact Ben securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or email at [email protected] . More about Benjamin Mullin