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The Day After

There's a lot more to know about the "blue tsunami"

Alex Ip 葉清霖
By  Alex Ip 葉清霖
6 min read

Happy Day after U.S. Election Day!

As vote counting continues, we're tracking some of the biggest upsets and most consequential results through The 19th’s (@19thnews) daily newsletter, which gives news women and LGBTQ+ people need to be seen and heard in our democracy.

Last year, I interviewed Georgia State Rep. Jasmine Clark, a professor at Emory University, at the Stand Up for Science protest in Atlanta on how Trump administration policies affect minority early-career science professionals. Because of how I left the U.S. for Hong Kong, we relied on The 19th's original reporting to continue providing essential coverage of Clark's political rise. Today, Clark is projected to be the first Black woman Ph.D. scientist to serve in Congress; she will represent Georgia’s 13th Congressional District come January!

The 19th is on a mission to welcome 500 new newsletter subscribers by the end of Election Week, and I think you will benefit from their in-depth coverage as much as we do. Sign up today — it’s easy and free!

Sign Up for The 19th's Daily Newsletter

And now, here are the top stories on the world's most pressing health and environmental disparities:

Best regards,
Alex Ip,
Publisher and Editor

🌶️ HOT OFF THE PRESSES: This National Program Asks: What’s in Our Air and Water?

A metal monitoring platform holding deposition collection equipment and sensors are seen amid forest foliage.
A view of the deposition collection equipment. (Courtesy of Robin Dreyer/NADP)

For decades, the U.S. has been monitoring atmospheric particles — which include pollutants — that get deposited on surfaces, helping researchers study and minimize their environmental impact. Jonathan Forney spoke to Robin Dreyer, who manages NC45 atop Clingmans’s Peak in North Carolina:

This National Program Asks: What’s in Our Air and Water?
For decades, the U.S. has been monitoring atmospheric particles — which include pollutants — that get deposited on surfaces, helping researchers study and minimize their environmental impact.
The XylomJonathan Forney

🌊 TRACKING TRUMP (AND THE HISTORIC MIDTERM ELECTIONS)

Democratic senators and members of Congress can issue subpoenas to force administration officials to testify before Congress, and could even impeach Trump administration figures over funding clawbacks and staff reductions that Democrats have called unlawful.

Democrats will also have control over must-pass funding bills, and Trump will have to negotiate with them in order to avoid a government shutdown. This could lead to the restoration of some funding for energy and climate resilience programs that Republicans have been trying to whittle down.

With majorities in the Senate and the House, the party could even seek to reimpose some of the clean energy tax credits that Republicans rescinded last year.
Foie gras is produced via a process called gavage, in which birds are force-fed high-fat grain or meal through a tube inserted down their throats. Like pâté, it can be served as a rich spread or blended into a mousse or terrine. It’s an extravagance linked with luxury but also cruelty. Foie gras is neither affordable nor a staple, and outside parts of France, it’s not exactly a traditional cultural foodway.
Americans in the West are seemingly united in their desire for more accountability and commitment from their officials when it comes to the future of public lands. Regardless of party, voters are not ignorant to the changes—both subtle and monumental—that leaders are enacting on public lands.
“Advanced recycling technologies offer an important opportunity to keep more plastic waste out of landfills,” John Hewitt, spokesperson for the Recycling Leadership Council, said in an email. 
These companies earned less than $47 billion collectively during the same period in 2025, a challenging stretch when oil was cheaper and companies were navigating the early fallout from President Trump’s trade war.
“Because enforcement of an unlawful definition of ‘medically frail’ may lead to the disenrollment of otherwise eligible vulnerable individuals relying on Medicaid coverage for continuity of care, the States (and public) face potential for great hardship in the absence of an injunction,” [US District Judge Richard Stearns] said. 

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🍑 A SOUTHERN FLAIR

“This project demonstrates how collaboration can transform a byproduct of wastewater treatment into a renewable energy resource that benefits our environment, strengthens our region’s energy future and advances our commitment to sustainability,” Jay Bernas, general manager and CEO of [Hampton Roads Sanitation District], HRSD, said in a statement. 
Bekah Hinojosa, a Brownsville resident and co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, said SpaceX’s potential purchase of the beach amounted to a hostile takeover.

“They are forcing SpaceX down our throats, but public land is not there for some billionaire to try to buy it and exploit it,” Hinojosa said in a statement.
“What’s unprecedented here is the scale at which we have allowed these minor air permits to have been approved in this way with so many of them, with no public review, no notification of the permits,” [Julie Bolthouse, the director of land use at the nonprofit Piedmont Environmental Council] said.
 In Georgia, only 36% of rural hospitals have a labor and delivery unit, and four have closed since 2020, according to data from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform.

📰 WHAT ELSE WE'RE READING

“Intensive salmon farming can have various impacts on marine ecosystems. Pollution can result both from the accumulation of organic matter and from the use of chemicals,” said Catalina Sapag, a marine biologist and scientific area coordinator at the nonprofit Oceana in Chile.
“I’m sending my beef [from USDA commodities] to somebody like Don Lee and getting hamburgers. I’m sending my cheese to Schwan and getting, you know, pizza. And I’m sending my chicken to, let’s say, Tyson and getting chicken patties and nuggets,” one school food-service director told researchers conducting a California-based study.
“We want this to be a global energy solution,” said Justin Briggs, a co-founder and chief operating officer of Antora, which is based in San Jose, Calif. “We want to be able to provide cheap, reliable energy anywhere in the world.”
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  • Alex Ip 葉清霖

    Alex Ip 葉清霖

    Alex weaves deeply reported narratives at the intersection of democratic backsliding and environmental justice using photography and open-source intelligence. He has won an Online Journalism Award, an Atlanta Press Club Award, and an Anthem Award.