The World Food Program has warned Afghanistan faces a “tsunami of hunger” as the economy continues to collapse, due in part to U.S. sanctions and the freezing of Afghan assets following the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Meanwhile, President Biden once again defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan on Wednesday without acknowledging the humanitarian crisis that followed his exit.
As many of the world’s wealthiest people wrap up virtual talks today at the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Switzerland, Oxfam reports the incomes of 99% of the world’s population dropped during the pandemic while the world’s 10 richest men saw their wealth double. Meanwhile, vaccine profits have minted at least nine new billionaires at Moderna, BioNTech and China’s CanSino, amassing a combined new wealth of over $19 billion.
As President Biden marks one year in office, we speak with former four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader and The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel, who say Biden has failed so far to sell his agenda to the American people and bring about the transformative policy he campaigned on — from quelling the pandemic to passing his landmark Build Back Better legislation. The two also critique the U.S.
We were in the White Room in 10 Downing Street, and Boris Johnson was joking around with the photographer who was taking his portrait. “You’re like the kind-of taxidermist in The Godfather,” Johnson said, laughing. “Do you remember? The funeral—the undertaker?” He then launched into his Don Corleone impression. “‘Buona sera, buona sera, see what a massacre they’ve made of my son.
The former president seemed to need some adulation at Mar-a-Lago.
In the news today: A newly disclosed draft executive order provided a roadmap of how the Trump White House contemplated using military force to nullify Trump’s election loss, including the seizure of voting machines, and retain power. The Biden administration is vowing to recommit to federal abortion rights as the hard-right Supreme Court signals its intent to erase the same.
News flash for the anti-maskers among us: Refusing to mask up on a crowded flight to London doesn’t make you Rosa Parks. It makes you an unbelievable asshole. This is not a hill worth dying on—though, come to think of it, you may very well die. Just not on a hill.
Not content to risk and/or ruin her own life, a woman who refused to wear a mask on a flight from Miami to London Wednesday night prompted the pilot to actually turn the plane around and head back home.
Hana Horka was a well-regarded Czech folk singer. She was a member of one of the oldest Czech folk groups still active, Asonance. She died at the age of 57 from COVID-19.
According to her son Jan Rek (23), Horka had become influenced by the anti-vaxxer movement. Rek says that, because of her refusal to get vaccinated, she decided the best pathway to get a pass to travel and play at venues requiring proof of vaccination or recent infection was to catch the virus herself.
Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, is “making the same calculation: What will help her in the long run?” said her cousin.
Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. A few years ago, one of the more controversial statements I made—whether in this series or on social media—was that there is nothing necessarily wrong with a primary campaign against a fellow party member. I said, and still believe, that there are times when primarying a fellow Democratic incumbent can be healthy for the campaign and for voter registration and energy.
The State Department ordered families of all U.S. personnel at the embassy in Kyiv to leave the country, and allowing non-essential staff to do the same.
Former New York Times journalist Donald G. McNeil Jr. wrote an article on Medium that stated what everyone with an ounce of intelligence already knows, but wouldn’t dare put in print: Not only is Donald Trump losing hundreds of voters each day to COVID-19, their deaths are already surpassing the margins the GOP can possibly hope to attain in the swing states.
The Vermont senator expressed frustration about the two Democrats joining Republicans in blocking major legislation.
Before the former Saturday Night Live cast member Will Forte made his hosting debut on the show yesterday, one of the more memorable moments from his eight-year tenure circulated online. In a 2005 sketch, Forte played a timid, overwhelmed spelling-bee contestant. When asked to spell the word business, he produced a deadpan, 75-letter sequence of consonants. As would so often occur during his time on SNL, Forte bulldozed past absurdity to find fresh hilarity.
The House panel investigating the Capitol riot requested cooperation from Ivanka Trump, the former president’s ex-adviser and adult daughter.
Jacinda Ardern was to have been married next weekend.
The ruling Communist Party is stepping up enforcement of its “zero tolerance” strategy.
My initials curled inside the oval like three robins
crowding a tree hollow.The card stock was beveled, the envelopes lined in airy pink paper.My father was dying quietly like the sound of his pen lifting
then touching down again.Once, waking from a nap, he asked me, “Will I be okay?”
and I said, “Yes.” Then it was time to chant Torah.
If Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t about to invade Ukraine—or, more accurately, isn’t about to expand his previous invasion—he’s certainly making a good show of it.Russian military forces have been moving into position for weeks. Russia and Belarus announced snap exercises that will continue for at least a month. President Joe Biden says he is expecting an invasion, and there are reports that the U.S.
In the second week of March 2020, uncertainty ruled TikTok. Students shared clips of school PA systems announcing closures and cancellations. Travelers filmed their frantic efforts to return to the U.S. before President Donald Trump’s border restrictions went into effect. And yet many users speculated that warnings of a life-reordering pandemic were overblown. Comment sections seemed angsty, but conspiracies abounded, hinting at the diverging versions of reality that lay ahead.
A flurry of regulatory, testing and logistical issues is complicating the rollout.
If the pandemic is to turn endemic — a situation top Biden health officials say they could more easily control — the U.S. needs to overhaul the nation’s public health workforce, she said.
Without more precise data, “you don’t know what’s happening and you don’t have the ability to say how at risk is the health care workforce,” said Celine Gounder.
The study did not explain why protection against reinfection and hospitalization grew among those individuals with a prior infection during Delta.
The Omicron surge didn’t just upend mayors’ inaugural fetes. It’s overtaken their first days and weeks in office, jeopardizing their approval ratings before they get a chance to push their agendas.
Dozens of influential anti-abortion rights organizations are mobilizing against Califf, sending letters to senators arguing he has “a track record of rubber-stamping abortion industry demands.
Sign up for Conor’s newsletter here.“You can appoint any American citizen to one term as president,” I wrote earlier this week, “so long as your choice has never run for president before. Who do you appoint to the White House and why?” Among politicians, Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, was mentioned most. Former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and former Georgia State Representative Stacey Abrams were tapped, too.
Congress needs to create a new safety net for such lenders — not let regulators squeeze them out of business.
Inside the White House, there is still optimism: “President Biden was elected to a four-year term, not a one-year term.
The government reported Wednesday that the consumer price index, the most widely watched gauge of inflation, hit a four-decade high in December compared to the previous year.