How Did Elon Musk Become the World’s Richest Person?
Wildly overvalued Tesla stock? Jeff Bezos’ divorce? Take your pick.
Today's Liberal News
Biden’s Covid board in the dark on final vaccine plan
On the eve of Biden’s vaccine rollout, board members of his Covid-19 response team are largely in the dark about the plan’s details, according to three people familiar.
Officials: Trump’s promised $200 drug-discount cards won’t happen
“It would take days to get all the sign-offs we still need, plus the time to print the letters and make the cards,” said one official, who noted Inauguration Day is only three business days away.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine hits production snags
The company could seek emergency authorization from FDA this month, but supplies may be thin at first.
My Lover Is Bad-Mouthing My Sexual Ability to Friends (and Family!) for an Absurd Reason
I, uh, really cannot fix that.
How to Give a Good Shot
Certain health care workers are known in the medical world as rock stars of inoculation.
U.S. loses 140,000 jobs in first monthly loss since spring
At the same time, the unemployment rate stayed at 6.7%, the first time it hasn’t fallen since April.
How Biden’s dream of fighting income inequality runs through Georgia
The share of wealth controlled by the top 1 percent sits at levels not seen since the 1920s. Biden’s hopes for changing it rests on Senate control.
Trump backs down, signs stimulus package
A government shutdown was averted after the president approved the Covid relief package and annual spending bill.
Congress sends Covid package and spending measure to Trump
The president has thrown the fate of the bill into jeopardy.
Fed enters Biden era with clipped wings and a warning from Republicans
Congress curbed the central bank’s emergency lending despite the economy’s continuing struggles.
As COVID Surges in L.A., Hard-Hit Indigenous Communities Fight to Preserve Life, Culture & Language
As Los Angeles County reports record COVID-19 infections, overflowing hospitals and record death tolls, we look at how Indigenous communities there are among the hardest hit in working-class neighborhoods, where many are essential workers.
Inside Trump’s Final Days: Aides Struggle To Contain An Angry, Isolated President
Trump’s last days in the White House have been marked by rage and turmoil, multiple sources said.
Thursday Night Owls: ‘How the United States chose to become a country of homelessness’
Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week.
6 days until JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE
Dale Maharidge at The Nation writes—How the United States Chose to Become a Country of Homelessness. For months, our leaders have known that the Covid-19 crisis could force millions of people from their homes.
Abortion plotlines on TV and film last year didn’t reflect reality, new report says
Content creators in Hollywood are known to bend the truth. When it comes to potraying abortion plotlines on the screen, things are no different. A new report by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California, San Francisco, looked into the ways abortion patients and topics are portrayed on TV and in movies. Researchers have been compiling annual data since 2012, and publicly releasing the reports since 2016.
Texas didn’t go as planned for Democrats, but the suburbs still moved sharply away from Republicans
Our project to calculate the 2020 presidential results for all 435 congressional districts nationwide goes to Texas, where the GOP gerrymander helped the party hold on to 23 of the state’s 36 U.S. House seats despite several Republican retirements. You can find our detailed calculations here, a large-size map of the results here, and our permanent, bookmarkable link for all 435 districts here.
Trump admin races to enact term limits for top health scientists
The regulation, which the Department of Health and Human Services could issue as a direct final rule within days, would mandate job reviews every five years for career federal scientists.
This Week in Statehouse Action: Sedition edition
By this time next week, we’ll have a new president! (… hopefully)
But with Donald Trump’s second impeachment (who says Congress can’t act with state legislature-like speed when it wants to?) because of his responsibility for last week’s violence in the U.S. Capitol, we’re very much not yet done with the old one.
FBI Arrests Retired Firefighter Accused Of Throwing Fire Extinguisher At Capitol Police
Robert Sanford, 55, of Pennsylvania, is accused of injuring three officers during the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Conditions on death row are horrible, but women have it especially hard
As the scheduled execution of Lisa Montgomery draws nearer, attorneys representing Montgomery are requesting that the federal government grant clemency in her case and reduce her sentencing to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
COVID-19 Deaths Are 25 Percent Higher Than in Any Previous Week
Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. For 16 weeks, throughout the fall and then straight through the data disruptions around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, the number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 has risen. On October 13, there were 36,000 people with COVID-19 in U.S. hospitals. Yesterday, on January 13, there were 130,000.
Joe Biden’s First COVID-Relief Bill Isn’t Screwing Around
He can’t possibly expect the GOP to go along with this—but that might be a good thing.
Delta Puts Trump Supporters Who Harassed Mitt Romney, Lindsey Graham On No-Fly List
The Republican senators were called “traitors” by right-wing Trump fans while waiting to board their flights last week.
The Atlantic Daily: The Danger That Will Outlast The Trump Presidency
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Anna Moneymaker / The New York Times / ReduxThe social-media bans hit before the impeachment vote. President Donald Trump is facing repercussions—inside the halls of Congress and out of it—as the country reels from the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
‘A call for unity’: Biden lays out vast federal expansion of pandemic response
The plan will essentially federalize the current patchwork pandemic response, including spending $20 billion to speed up vaccinations.
Joe Biden Unveils $1.9 Trillion Economic Relief Plan With Bigger Checks, Vaccine Plan
Biden proposes $1,400 direct payments and extending boosted unemployment benefits until September.
Robot Vacuums Don’t Need a Lot of Frills. Try This Powerful Budget Model, Now on Sale.
The Eufy RoboVac11s will do everything you really need.
Secret Service Barred From Jared And Ivanka’s Bathrooms Rented A Toilet For $3,000 A Month
A Washington Post report revealed that agents had to go to extraordinary lengths to relieve themselves — including using a bathroom in the Obamas’ nearby garage.
We Don’t Know How Many People Have Recovered From COVID-19
Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. In November, The Covid Tracking Project stopped reporting recovery figures for the United States as a whole, and yesterday we also removed many, though not all, of the state-level “recovered” values from our website. We want, above all, to provide accurate and meaningful information.
Go Ahead, Share Your Vaccine Selfie
Bettmann / GettyThree days ago, I received the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. As a pediatrics resident working in New York, I saw it as a glimmer of hope during an otherwise bleak winter. Before administering the shot, the nurse described the possible side effects and confirmed that I had no allergies.