Early in Sally Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations With Friends, the heroine has a nightmare. Frances, a college student, dreams that a tooth has come loose in her mouth, leaving a hole that pumps out so much blood, she can’t speak. “The blood tasted thick, clotted and salty,” she recounts. “I could feel it, vividly, running back down my throat.
In a historic milestone, Chile has finalized a draft of its first-ever democratically written constitution to replace the one created under the U.S.-backed neoliberal dictator Augusto Pinochet. The new constitution is expected to enshrine a wide range of human rights and social programs, including free universal access to healthcare, higher education, reproductive rights, as well as more robust environmental safeguards and policies to promote gender and racial equity.
The white supremacist who shot 10 people dead in Buffalo, New York, was able to buy an assault rifle months after New York state police took him into custody for making a threat about committing violence. The gun store owner who sold the weapon says a background check showed a clean record. We look at how background checks alone are not enough to prevent gun violence, as both mass shootings and weapons sales have skyrocketed in recent years without more legislation at the federal level.
As the United Nations warns about the devastating global impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, talks to negotiate a peace settlement appear to have collapsed. Russian President Vladimir Putin appears determined to push forward despite a more resilient Ukrainian defense than expected, as both sides seem to be fixated on gaining military and territorial victories. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to pour millions of dollars in weapons into Ukraine.
Doctors, lawmakers and activists are squaring off over the policy of allowing non-physicians to terminate a pregnancy
Attorneys and advocates are exploring options beyond lawsuits, including using strategies once relied on by their foes.
“We’ve got two 9-month-old children,” he noted.
The bulk of the funding pledges are set to come from international officials.
On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.3% from March to April, a still-elevated rate but the smallest increase in eight months.
Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue.
The government said gross domestic product shrank at a 1.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter.
The steady spending suggested the economy could keep expanding this year even though the Federal Reserve plans to raise rates aggressively to fight the inflation surge.
The war in Ukraine will “severely” set back the global recovery from Covid-19, according to the IMF.
House lawmakers have raised alarm over a nationwide baby formula shortage after a manufacturer in Michigan shut down over health concerns and was linked to the deaths of two infants. Advocates are calling for greater accountability and investigation into the manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, even as the Food and Drug Administration is in talks to allow the plant to reopen.
The veteran foreign service officer was confirmed unanimously by the Senate without a formal roll call vote.
In the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell introduced President George W. Bush to the “Pottery Barn rule”: “You break it, you own it.” Powell’s point was that military victory over Saddam Hussein would not be the end of America’s involvement, but the beginning. Something similar is true for Northern Ireland today, where the fragile peace settlement that has just about held for nearly a quarter century is close to breaking.
Today, Ukraine liberated another town around Kharkiv, this one just to its north. But the main show is down in the Popasna-Severonetsk-Lyman area, where Russia continues to make costly incremental gains.
🇷🇺 is attacking in multiple directions out from Popasna and has reportedly captured Vrubivka and Druzhba pic.twitter.
House Democrats are pushing a small funding boost for the Food and Drug Administration.
Primary elections in multiple states have begun to shake out what the November elections will look like, and we now know for certain that Rep. Madison Cawthorn won’t be in Congress come next January. Republican voters handed him his own primary loss after he publicly asserted earlier this year that his fellow national Republicans were having drug orgies.
What Cawthorn was not booted for was his vocal support for the nullification of an American election.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered his 84th daily update to the people of Ukraine. He also spoke on the phone with the president of the United Arab Emirates in an effort to get a new source of fuel, discussed a new assistance package with the president of the European Union, welcomed the U.S. embassy back to Kyiv, and dealt with the 1,001 items it takes to keep a nation afloat in the midst of a military invasion that represents a genuine existential crisis.
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 seeks to acknowledge and honor outstanding writing contributions from everyone. The entire Daily Kos membership is “the Academy,” so your votes decide the winners.
When conservatives’ racist dog whistles prompt certain dogs to go on killing rampages—as happened over the weekend in Buffalo—folks like Sen. Ron Johnson are only too happy to exploit their dim-bulb reputations in order to scurry away from controversies of their own making.
The president is also ordering Defense Department aircraft to ship formula from overseas.
Sunshine Suzanne Sykes of the Navajo Nation is also just the fifth Indigenous woman in U.S. history to serve on a federal court.
The celebrity doctor-turned-Senate candidate thanked the Fox News host for his help in the Republican primary.
Updated at 6:10 p.m. ET on May 18, 2022“What do you think of this company Netscape?” my parents asked. It was 1995, and they had called me on the landline, which back then just meant the telephone. Netscape was a company that made a graphical web browser—the web browser, really—but gave it away for free. Its income statement showed only modest revenue (and substantial losses). The web was new and exciting but unproven, so I steered my folks away from Netscape’s IPO.
“He is fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and is experiencing mild symptoms,” a spokesperson said.
Three years ago, when a white-supremacist fanatic killed dozens of people in El Paso, Texas, the reaction from the right was unreserved condemnation. When another white-supremacist fanatic killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, last week, the reaction from some figures on the right was to acknowledge that the guy had a point about this whole “replacement” thing.
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 Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Question of the WeekCaitlin Flanagan’s masterful “Chasing Joan Didion” has me thinking about travel.What have you learned while away from home? Paint a picture of where you went and share your insights.
In a rare interview from the frontlines of the Russian invasion, we speak with American journalist Billy Nessen in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk. It is the easternmost city still held by Ukrainian forces after almost three months of war. He says Russian troops have devastated the city with heavy shelling. The interview with Nessen was interrupted when a shell landed in the building next door. Nessen speaks about the Ukrainian resistance, the Azov Battalion and more, including the U.S.