How Gavin Newsom’s recall election could change the country

THE BIG STORY

Why are Democrats freaking out about a race in California?

Vice President Kamala Harris with California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a campaign event in San Leandro, California, Sept. 8 (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

The highest-profile election since the 2020 presidential race comes to a head this week. On Sept. 14, California, a state whose economy is one of the largest in the world, will decide whether to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Republicans' list of grievances against Newsom is long, and includes opposition to pandemic response measures and stances on immigration. A key rallying cry for the recall happened last November, when Newsom attended a party for a lobbyist at Michelin-starred restaurant The French Laundry — against the state's guidance discouraging people from socializing in groups that included multiple households.

The race appears to be Newsom's to lose. Nonetheless, local and national Democrats find themselves engulfed in it, knowing that a loss could open the door to anything from a morale hit for their party to similar recall efforts targeting Democrats in other states.

"The Democrats have a lot more at stake," said Rob Stutzman, a California-based GOP strategist. "Ultimate humiliation, and it would be a manifestation of a complete fracture of their traditional base in California."

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

The Texas abortion ban has led to confusion over access to emergency contraception, and experts are worried

Let's be clear: SB 8, the Texas 6-week abortion ban, does not make emergency contraceptives such as Plan B illegal. Emergency contraceptives (also known as the "morning-after pill") are still available without an ID or prescription in pharmacies across Texas and all other US states.

But confusion over what SB 8 does or doesn't do is already spreading online, and doctors fear that misinformation about the law will have a chilling effect on those seeking emergency contraceptives.

"The unfortunate side effect is the trickling down to all contraception," Tracey Wilkinson, a board member at Physicians for Reproductive Health, told BuzzFeed News. "The silencing impact that's happening against all reproductive health topics … will have huge impacts on life outcomes."

Also, abortion clinics in Texas are now under SB 8's power, and these are often the same places that provide morning-after pills. If these resources shutter as a result of the law, more people will struggle to access birth control, STI treatment, and other forms of care, reproductive health experts warn.

SNAPSHOTS

Prince Andrew has been served with a sexual abuse lawsuit by Jeffrey Epstein's alleged victim Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre says that the duke sexually abused her on multiple occasions in New York, London, and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands when she was under the age of 18.

Wildfires around Lake Tahoe could have a long-lasting effect on one of California's most beautiful places. The Lake Tahoe basin was spared from the worst of the Caldor fire damage, but consequences for the environment could still be devastating.

Twitch is suing users who allegedly conducted "hate raids" on Black and LGBTQ streamers. The harassment unleashed by users CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose was allegedly so relentless that some creators were forced to stop streaming on the platform, Twitch said.

Machine Gun Kelly and Conor McGregor had to be separated at the VMAs after an altercation broke out on the red carpet. At this point, it's unclear what provoked the scuffle.

UNCERTAINTY AT THE US BORDER

"Remain in Mexico" asylum-seekers thought there was hope under Biden, but despair is sinking in

This summer, President Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise and formally ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a Trump-era policy that's forced more than 71,000 immigrants and asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while a US judge ruled on their case.

However, this move quickly unraveled earlier this summer, when a district judge ordered it to be reinstated and the Supreme Court refused to block the decision. Now, until the Biden White House resolves the recent court action, thousands of immigrants waiting at the border are stuck at a standstill.

"One day we were waiting on the call to enter the US, and the next we don't know if we will ever be allowed in," said Frank, an immigrant who's been waiting in a Mexican border town since 2019.

"It hasn't been easy living here, and I'm begging the US to at least let those of us with open cases enter the country. I don't know how much longer we can wait."

A NEW KIND OF LEGAL VICTORY

Thanks to this woman's college paper, "stealthing" could soon be outlawed in California

(Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)

When Yale law student Alexandra Brodsky wrote her term paper in 2017 about why "stealthing," the nonconsensual removal of a condom during sex, is "rape-adjacent" behavior that should provide victims with legal recourse, she didn't expect it to influence actual legislation.

But last week, California lawmakers approved a bill that would outlaw "stealthing" and allow victims to sue sexual partners who remove condoms without consent — and the bill's sponsor, California Assemblymember Cristina Garcia, credits Brodsky's study as the reason she began working on the issue in 2017.

Brodsky's paper contended that stealthing transformed consensual sex into nonconsensual sex and was a "grave violation of dignity and autonomy." Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Oct. 10 to sign the bill into law, which could make California the first state in the country to ban this sexually abusive practice that gets little attention outside of internet forums. (This story contains descriptions of sexual violence.)

Conditional trust isn't trust. Spend time with people you trust fully,

Alexa

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