A Leading Critic of Big Tech Will Join the White House
Tim Wu’s appointment to the National Economic Council signals a confrontational approach by the Biden administration.
Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor, was named a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy on Friday.Credit.Valerie Chiang for The New York Times
March 5, 2021
WASHINGTON President Biden on Friday named Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor, to the National Economic Council as a special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy, putting one of the most outspoken critics of Big Tech’s power into the administration.
Taking on a New Role, Susan Rice is Asserting Herself
After serving as United Nations ambassador and national security adviser in the Obama administration, she has unexpectedly ended up helping oversee domestic policy in the Biden White House.
“I’ve got more to do than I’ve got hours of the day,” said Susan E. Rice, the head of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council. “It’s new terrain, so it’s fun.”Credit.Hilary Swift for The New York Times
March 5, 2021
WASHINGTON When President Biden and his top advisers decided to bomb Iran-backed militias in Syria last week, Susan E. Rice was not in the room.
Emily Nemens Departs as Paris Review Editor
Named to the top job in 2018, her resignation follows a handful of personnel changes at literary publications.
Emily Nemens said on Wednesday that she was leaving her position as editor of The Paris Review.Credit.Jules Slutsky
March 3, 2021
Emily Nemens is stepping down as editor of The Paris Review less than three years after she was named to lead the prestigious New York-based literary magazine.
In a note published Wednesday on the magazine’s website, Nemens wrote about the publication’s mission and the things she’s been proudest of in her time there. Only toward the end of the nearly 600-word post did she reveal that she is leaving to work on her second novel. “Hopefully, eventually, I’ll edit again,” she wrote. “Connecting writers to readers is among the world’s best professions.”
The White House had insisted that it would stand by Neera Tanden as President Biden’s top budget official, but it became clear that she did not have the Senate votes to be confirmed.
Reversing Trump, Interior Department Moves Swiftly on Climate Change
Representative Deb Haaland being sworn in to her Senate confirmation hearing last month.Credit.Pool photo by Jim Watson
March 2, 2021
WASHINGTON As the Interior Department awaits its new secretary, the agency is already moving to lock in key parts of President Biden’s environmental agenda, particularly on oil and gas restrictions, laying the groundwork to fulfill some of the administration’s most consequential climate change promises.
Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico, Mr. Biden’s nominee to lead the department, faces a showdown vote in the Senate likely later this month, amid vocal Republican concern for her past positions against oil and gas drilling. But even without her, an agency that spent much of the past four years opening vast swaths of land to commercial exploitation has pulled an abrupt about-face.