The Biden administration is looking at approving a second booster shot for some adults within weeks, to improve older Americans’ immunity should infections rise due to the BA.2 subvariant.
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Friday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Apparently one of the most exciting stories in music this year is a lack of excitement about music. In January, the question “Is old music killing new music?” went viral when a newsletter by the jazz historian Ted Gioia (republished by The Atlantic) highlighted data showing that, from 2020 to 2021, listenership for freshly released songs—in comparison with listenership for older songs—decreased.
At this very moment, the United States, as a whole, remains in its legit pandemic lull. Coronavirus case counts and hospitalizations are lower than they’ve been since last summer. There’s now a nice, chonky gap between us and January’s Omicron peak.And yet. Outbreaks have erupted across Asia.
Amid the partisan grandstanding and enumeration of credentials in Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, a few lines about parenthood pierced me the most. Addressing her two daughters, seated in the audience, Jackson said: “Girls, I know it has not been easy as I have tried to navigate the challenges of juggling my career and motherhood. And I fully admit that I did not always get the balance right.
An additional dose for those 65 or older is under consideration. But there is concern about moving ahead of the normal FDA process.
The company says its shot is safe, effective for youngest children.
As the U.S. and its allies ramp up punitive sanctions on Russia and military support for Ukraine, they must be combined with active peace talks, says Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko. This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin refuses to rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons in what has turned into a long, costly war.
Republican senators grilled Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over her views on critical race theory on the second day of her confirmation hearing to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. “The Republicans are mischaracterizing, misquoting, taking out of context words and speeches that Judge Jackson has made,” says Alexis Hoag, professor at Brooklyn Law School.
To begin our coverage of day two of the historic nomination hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, we discuss the attacks by Republicans on her work defending suspects at Guantánamo Bay prison.
The administration’s difficulties in getting bank cop nominees through a Democratic-controlled Senate underscore the fault lines within the party over how to approach financial regulation.
Health care organizations including providers and insurers in every state except South Dakota reported such incidents last year.
Agency leadership seeks to improve how it collects and sifts through information to get at better outcomes.
Vivek Murthy said the nation is in a good position to get through new waves.
America’s hospital regulator wants patients to report facilities that request they remove their masks.
The state is a poster child for how rural areas are suffering disproportionately amid the pandemic in the worst public health crisis in a century.
The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates — but Congress has a chance to bring real relief.
The increase reported by the Labor Department reflected the 12 months ending in February and didn’t include most of the oil and gas price increases that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb.
The Fed is already expected to begin a campaign of interest rate increases next month in a bid to remove its support for economic growth amid a blistering job market and rapidly rising prices.
“America’s job machine is going stronger than ever,” Biden said at the White House.
The burst of jobs came despite a wave of Omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.
In an exclusive interview, we speak with prominent Sahrawi human rights activist Sultana Khaya in occupied Western Sahara. Moroccan authorities have held her and her family under de facto house arrest for nearly 500 days, where she has been subjected to harassment and sexual abuse. A delegation of U.S.-based activists arrived at her home last week to break the siege and ward off police surveillance.
The Ukrainian military is now acknowledging several new successes northwest of Kyiv, but whether those successes will result in the true encirclement of the Russian artillery positions north of the city remains unknowable. For the first time, however, such encirclement appears to be a genuine threat to Russian forces.
A large wedge tornado, likely a class 4 or 5 storm, cut a path through New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward on Tuesday evening. It was part of a line of storms that cut across the South. The tornado in the Lower Ninth was just one of several tornadoes in the New Orleans area.
Details are still coming in.
@MargaretOrr here is a video of the tornado my husband matthew burke took in chalmette on chinchilla st. you all have permission to use it! pic.twitter.
Daily Kos was born on May 26, 2002. That makes 2022 our 20th anniversary year, and just one of the ways we’re celebrating is by bringing back the Koscars! One of the things that makes Daily Kos special is our open platform, where community members can publish stories alongside staff. The Koscars seek to acknowledge and honor outstanding writing contributions from everyone. The entire Daily Kos membership is “the Academy,” so your votes decide the winners.
“You didn’t help a little, you helped a lot,” Brian Kilmeade told Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby of helping get Benjamin Hall to safety.
If you’re wondering when the Republican Party first took a hard right turn onto Loopy Lane, you need look no further than 2008, when a desperate Sen. John McCain, trying to distance himself from the noxious mound of still-moldering viscera that was the Bush II administration, tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a bid to balance the Republican presidential ticket.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was hanging out in Montana this weekend, it seems. We only know this because someone who was at the Bozeman Airport on Sunday filmed Cruz freaking out about missing the check-in for his flight.
Republicans relied on dark money to support their judicial nominees under Trump. Now they’re attacking Democrats for it.
The nominee projected a measured, thoughtful demeanor while Republicans struggled to land substantive blows.