Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Tuesday’s Virginia gubernatorial election was about schools. It wasn’t about Donald Trump, or inflation, or defunding the police, or Medicare for All, or President Biden’s infrastructure agenda. It wasn’t really about critical race theory or transgender rights—though those issues shaded the situation a bit by highlighting anxieties surrounding the education system.
Democrats lost control of a state that has provided some of its biggest recent gains to a Republican who leaned into Trump’s culture war — and won where Trump couldn’t.
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va.—The beer was flowing, the handmade potato chips were self-serve, and hope was in the air. Early in the night, the Loudoun County Democrats who gathered at the Döner Bistro in Leesburg were cautiously—anxiously—optimistic: Sure, it had been a rough year. A global pandemic, regular protests at the local school-board meetings, and the contentious governor’s race, rife with misinformation, had pitted neighbor against neighbor.
In the news today: While anti-vaccination shouters are getting all the press attention, vaccination requirements continue to be wildly successful. Yet more polling emphasizes the willingness of the pro-Trump Republican base to engage even in violence, rather than abide non-Republicans continuing to win elections.
The QAnon conspiracy cult, whose venn diagram with the MAGA crowd is almost in eclipse, is as wide-ranging a conspiracy theory as exists in the modern era.
Wu is the first person who is not a white man to be elected mayor of Boston.
Kevin Brobson is the Republican candidate on the ballot for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The race has garnered an unusually high degree of right-wing “dark money” involvement since Democrats currently enjoy a 5-2 majority on that court and the race is to replace retiring Justice Thomas Saylor.
In a way, it’s good to have this finally stated. Over the past 30-odd years, we’ve been treated again and again to more than obvious attempts by the Republican Party to channel racism from their base of support.
It’s election night 2021! Numerous important races are on the ballot across the country, and we’re liveblogging the top contests below.
Brad Raffensperger said Trump’s requests on their infamous phone call indicated a limited understanding of elections procedures.
The “Let’s go Brandon” meme, shorthand for an explicit phrase bashing the president, isn’t being embraced by every corner of the Republican Party.
The nation’s most closely watched off-year election wrapped up Tuesday in Virginia after becoming partly a referendum on President Joe Biden’s first year in office.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky quickly endorsed the use of shots, which could become available as early as Wednesday.
All around you are swirling scenes of violence—explosions in Baghdad, ISIS operatives slitting the throat of an infidel, the chaos around the U.S. Capitol on January 6. You see jarring images of blood and brutality; you hear the grating sound of screaming; you feel the rush of fear and rage.But then a calm, sympathetic man steps forward, dressed in a button-down shirt. He explains all of it.
Sequels are clogging theaters this fall—just look at the new entries in the James Bond, Venom, Halloween, and Marvel franchises. Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II is yet another retread, following up on her 2019 movie about a young filmmaker coming of age and navigating a doomed relationship. But this is not a typical sequel, and in a cinematic landscape often dominated by lazy, cash-grab blockbusters, Hogg’s work stands out.
We look at Monday’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the constitutionality of Texas’s near-total ban on abortions with legendary lawyer Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert, who argued the 1992 landmark Supreme Court case credited with saving Roe v. Wade. “’Save Roe’ has been our mantra for so many years, and it no longer works because of the ultraconservatie nature of this Supreme Court,” Kolbert says.
A new ad released by the United Nations Development Program shows a computer-generated dinosaur speaking in the U.N. General Assembly hall, warning diplomats that “going extinct is a bad thing” and calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies. The dinosaur is voiced by Jack Black.
We speak with Brianna Fruean, an activist from Samoa, who implored global leaders at the U.N. climate summit to consider how small islands like Samoa, Tutuila and Tonga might drown without urgent action against rising sea levels. She told the audience, “If you’re looking for inspiration on climate leadership, take a look at young Pacific people.” Many Pacific islands are in danger of vanishing in the next decade if sea levels and global temperatures continue to rise.
Countries attending the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow have made new pledges to cut their emissions, but activists say it’s not enough to avert the worst of the climate crisis. India has vowed to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2070. Over 100 leaders have agreed to end deforestation by 2030. The United States is announcing a new plan to reduce methane emissions, among other measures.
As President Biden addressed the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow on Monday, warning that “climate change is already ravaging the world,” back home his climate agenda was dealt a major setback when Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia criticized the slimmed-down $1.85 trillion Build Back Plan. “The air went out of this conference” when Biden showed up with no major climate legislation passed, says Bill McKibben of 350.org in Glasgow.
Weaker-than-projected economic growth in the last quarter, a jobs slowdown and supply chain snags that are likely to continue into next year are sending warning signs for the economy.
Though the Court split 5-4 in declining to block the unique ban before it took effect in September, the justices now have before them evidence of the sweeping impact it’s had.
Members of the aerospace, distribution, defense and trucking sectors are warning the Biden administration they will not be able to meet the vaccine deadline.
The CDC’s vaccine advisers are scheduled to meet Tuesday to evaluate the shot, and are expected to vote in favor of its use
It’s not just Republicans who are assigning responsibility to the administration for the rocky economic recovery, polls show.
Thursday’s report from the Commerce Department estimated that the nation’s gross domestic product declined sharply from the 6%-plus annual growth rates of each of the previous two quarters.
The most recent Consumer Price Index showed prices have gone up 5.4 percent in the past 12 months.
Too many employers are imposing crippling debt on workers. Biden can do something about it.
In the news today: Just as Democratic lawmakers seemed on the cusp of an infrastructure agreement, Sen. Joe Manchin held his very own press conference to announce yet another round of new complaints, criticisms, and demands. From the outside, it looked like an effort to sabotage both infrastructure bills—but Manchin may just be addicted to hearing himself talk.
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