Welcome Friday folks! The word on the street is that after freely giving billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine in their battle against Russian invasion, the Biden administration may honestly have a meaningful conversation about federal student debt relief.
Thursday’s briefing from the U.S. Defense Department spoke directly to the relationship between Russia’s logistical problems and its slow progress in Ukraine.
The entire Republican brand has been built on a wobbly foundation of vile lies and exaggerations. It has to be.
Educator and activist Constanza Eliana Chinea explains that her decolonization lessons aren’t designed with white people in mind. Rather, the classes are for people of color; those who “have been colonized” and are “trying to move away from assimilation.”
Chinea was born in New York, then moved to her parent’s birthplace in Puerto Rico at around 8 years old.
Public opinion in the federal government’s leading public health agency remains low.
When Marion Crawford, the nanny for then-Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, published a gentle, ghostwritten memoir in the 1950s about her life with the royals, it was an instant sensation. The book, “novelistic and carefully plotted,” as my colleague Caitlin Flanagan noted in 2006, cataloged all the kinds of details that might captivate an outsider: “of dress and of food and of housekeeping on the grandest level imaginable,” she wrote.
Whatever your views on “cancel culture,” one thing is certain: Search-and-rescue missions on behalf of the disappeared can take strange forms. Witness a 2020 New Yorker essay that was published online under the title “How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor?” The question suggested the possibility that something as vile as racism might be calibrated—and that O’Connor’s case had moved from the verdict to the sentencing phase.
Sign up for David’s newsletter, The Third Rail, here.Few legal doctrines are contributing more to the culture war than the idea that America’s public-school teachers have no meaningful free-speech rights when they’re at work.
The landmark 1979 labor documentary, “The Wobblies,” has been restored and rereleased for May Day, International Workers’ Day.
Climate change is forcing animal migrations at an unprecedented scale, bringing many previously disconnected species into close contact and dramatically raising the likelihood of viruses leaping into new hosts and sparking future pandemics. That’s according to a new study in the journal Nature, which predicts that climate-driven disruptions to Earth’s ecosystems will create thousands of cross-species viral transmissions in the coming decades.
Nuclear watchdogs are expressing alarm over safety conditions at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian control since early March after a fight that led to a fire near one of the plant’s reactors. It is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and located in the largest city in southeastern Ukraine still under Ukrainian control.
Choosing a baby name is one of the first major decisions you make as a parent, and it can be a stressful one. Should you pick a trendy, unique name? Honor a family member? Go gender neutral, or traditional? The questions can be dizzying, and the choices feel rife with meaning. Names, after all, are our introduction to the world and tend to make a statement.
There’s a lovely scene in Interstellar—one of the best space movies in history; don’t argue with me—when the NASA pilot tasked with saving the day hands a pair of headphones to his fellow space traveler, a physicist, who’s having a difficult time on their perilous journey through space. When the physicist puts the buds in, he and the audience hear the distinct sounds of Earth: crickets, rain, the low rumble of thunder.
The request comes a month after the drug company signaled its two-dose regimen generated immune protection in the youngest children comparable to young adults.
Less access could also prolong the pandemic, allowing the virus to circulate and perhaps provide a haven for new, more dangerous variants.
The Omicron BA.2 subvariant now accounts for most cases in the country, with the number of BA.2.12.1 subvariant cases on the rise particularly in the Northeast.
The war in Ukraine will “severely” set back the global recovery from Covid-19, according to the IMF.
The Fed’s campaign to raise interest rates — designed to reduce spending and curb inflation — will slow growth, which will have consequences for American workers.
Prices have been driven up by bottlenecked supply chains, robust consumer demand and disruptions to global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
We speak with historian Alfred McCoy about how the Russian invasion of Ukraine could possibly end. McCoy argues the European Union is essentially funding the war by buying energy from Russia, and says sanctions will not deter Russian President Putin from war so long as his economy continues supplying energy for the world.
Less than 9% of plastic in the U.S. is recycled each year, according to the EPA. The rest ends up in landfills, is burned or released into the environment.
“I’m back b***hes,” he crowed, then the longtime Trump adviser quickly disappeared.
The old adage that “if it’s too good to be true, it likely is,” definitely applies in this war, as I spent much of the day trying to verify fantastical claims from both sides. I even had to enlist Mark Sumner at one point to help me sort through one rumor of a major Ukrainian breakthrough toward Mariupol. Turns out, no one is making big sweeping gains. It’s all “lay down artillery until defenders get the f’ out, walk in.
Wednesday brought news of a surprise prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia, with Russia releasing former Marine Trevor Reed as the U.S. released Konstantin Yaroshenko. The decision to make the exchange came amid the relentless advocacy of Reed’s parents and news of his deteriorating health, with President Joe Biden ultimately making the decision to trade Yaroshenko, who was convicted of drug trafficking in 2010.
EarthJustice and the Center for Biological Diversity have teamed up to sue the U.S. Postal Service over its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) order of 50,000 mail trucks, just 10,019 of which will be electric. The order has been controversial since it was initially announced, though the USPS initially requested that just 10% of its NGDVs be EVs and has since ordered a slightly larger amount amid public outcry.
The ongoing far-right strategy of targeting local politics—school boards and city councils and public health boards—to gain traction for their politics of bigotry and menace is clearly a daunting concern.
Grasping for a favorable verdict, ex-cop Thomas Webster has told jurors trying his case in Washington, D.C., that when he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6 and proceeded to charge a police officer with a metal pole before tackling him and choking him, it was just self-defense.
The 56-year-old and his attorney have relied on Webster’s experience as a former U.S.
“I’m back!” he beams, weirdly adding: “#COVFEFE.
The former president claimed his onetime adviser had “totally destroyed” her husband, whom he called “mentally ill.
“I don’t know if that’s my text message or not, but if you want to talk about a text message, read the text message,” said Greene, who says it vindicates her.