When a boa constrictor coils its midriff around a wriggling rat, it’s easy to feel sorry for the soon-to-be-lifeless rodent, its blood supply so blocked that its heart stops pumping.But consider, too, the plight of the snake. The curly-fry crush of a boa—which can exert pressures of up to 25 pounds per square inch—doesn’t just squish the life out of its prey.
The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson have been marked by bizarre lines of questioning from Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Maybe none was weirder and more surprising than an attack by Josh Hawley, who planted the idea that Jackson is abnormally sympathetic toward consumers of child pornography.
By the time Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey brought Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to tears yesterday, the Supreme Court nominee had been answering questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee for more than 20 hours over two days. She had, by nearly all accounts, handled herself fine, alternately deflecting or batting away Republican attempts to portray her as a soft-on-crime judge who coddled pedophiles and supported the indoctrination of America’s schoolchildren.
Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET on March 24, 2022.The Cleveland Browns are acting as if they conducted a high-level, CSI-like investigation before offering Deshaun Watson a five-year, $230 million deal late last week. It’s a laughable pretense.The quarterback, formerly of the Houston Texans, faces 22 civil lawsuits accusing him of a range of inappropriate and coercive sexual behavior.
Anti-abortion bills are sweeping the U.S., with the Guttmacher Institute reporting that 82 restrictions have been introduced in 30 states in 2022 so far. On Wednesday, Idaho signed into law a six-week abortion ban, and lawmakers in Oklahoma passed a near-total ban on abortions — each modeled after a Texas “bounty hunter” law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Dobbs v.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appears poised to become the first Black woman and the first former public defender on the Supreme Court, having weathered attacks from Republicans with little support from Democrats during the third leg of her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. We speak with legal analysts Imani Gandy and Dahlia Lithwick.
NATO, the G7 and the European Council held unprecedented emergency meetings in Brussels Thursday as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second month. NATO has announced plans to send even more troops to Eastern Europe, where its troop presence has already doubled from last month to 40,000. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says that as the war becomes a prolonged stalemate, the U.S.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has died of cancer at the age of 84. She served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 until 1997, when President Bill Clinton nominated her to become the first female secretary of state. Albright was a staunch supporter of U.S. power and a defender of authoritarian leaders around the world like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Indonesia’s Suharto. She was a key architect of NATO’s 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999.
White House officials deny any sense of panic over the economy or their midterm chances.
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.
Hundreds of nonviolent antiwar protesters gathered in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Monday to oppose Russian occupation of the city and object to involuntary military service. Russian forces used stun grenades and machine gun fire to disperse the crowd. Meanwhile, President Biden is expected to travel to a NATO summit this week in Brussels, where Western allies are preparing to discuss the response if Russia turns to using nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
People couldn’t believe the Colorado Republican’s tweet was real.
The Biden administration asked the Republican Senate candidates to resign or be removed from the council on sports, fitness and nutrition.
Reports of successful Ukrainian offensives continued today, potentially putting Russian supply lines both northeast and northwest of Kyiv in significant jeopardy. Russian forces, meanwhile, continue to show little skill in responding to such threats—and indeed, even continue to focus what little air power they are willing to risk on bombing less-protected civilian areas to the south while avoiding military-to-military engagement.
NBC’s Richard Engel got an unclassified look at the status map at a Ukrainian headquarters. Click the link for the full video, but here’s a screenshot of the map itself:
For all the talk about Ukraine encircling the Russian spearhead at Bucha, northwest of the city, it’s actually the northeastern side of Kyiv where counter-attacks are having the most success.
Donald Trump’s Hitler Goof rallies have been drawing less and less interest lately, in part because windmill cancer has tragically taken so many of his rural devotees and also because Fox News no longer sees any benefit to broadcasting them. And why would they? His shtick never changes. It’s like watching a throng of mutant space orangutans break into a flash-orgy on the veranda of your local Olive Garden.
MacKenzie Scott is worth billions, but she’s not trying to keep it. Unlike most rich folks, she’s generously giving the bulk of it away to worthy causes.
A Tuesday announcement revealed that Scott donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity International and 84 of its U.S. affiliates.
This story was originally published at Prism.
Marie “Mama” Nan Nfor has not seen her husband since 2018. Her husband, prominent Cameroonian revolutionary Nfor Ngala Nfor, has been imprisoned in Cameroon since 2018 as part of the “Nera 10,” a group of 10 Anglophone leaders who were abducted during the first year of the civil war.
In the former president’s eyes, you’re apparently “woke” if you don’t fully support his lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
David Pomerantz resigned from the Manhattan district attorney’s office last month after spending years investigating Trump’s business dealings.
One of the hotel’s owners posted a ban notice on Facebook after a shooting at the hotel early Saturday involving two Native American teenagers.
The push comes as many other Democratic proposals to lower health care costs remain on ice.
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.