Each installment of The Friendship Files features a conversation between The Atlantic’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.This week she talks with Mary Beth Kelly, who wanted to reclaim her family home after her husband passed away, and Jane DeWitt, the stonemason who helped her do that.
President Donald Trump broke with decades of U.S. foreign policy in the waning days of his administration and recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a territory the country has occupied since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. U.S.
President Joe Biden has pledged to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, supported by both the Obama and Trump administrations, describing it as a “humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.” The six-year war in Yemen has devastated the country, killing at least 100,000 people and pushing 80% of the country into instability requiring some form of aid or protection, according to the United Nations. Biden’s remarks on Yemen come amid a freeze of U.S.
As the U.S Senate prepares its impeachment trial of President Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection, House lawmakers took to the floor Thursday to detail their experiences and demand accountability. We air excerpts from dramatic speeches by Democratic Congressmembers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Countries across the African continent are facing a second COVID-19 outbreak, linked to a variant first found in South Africa that has been detected in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Comoros and Zambia and more than 20 non-African countries so far. There is concern new variants, which scientists believe are more infectious, could spread the virus further before widespread vaccination begins.
There are a lot of bizarre, self-imposed congressional limits that may delay final passage until March.
The troubled startup was primed to fail in a pandemic. Here’s how it survived.
All because they have to pass more COVID relief with just 50 votes.
Many pharmacies are already administering vaccine doses that have been allocated to states.
A POLITICO analysis suggests disadvantaged communities are being bypassed — even in blue states fighting disparities.
I don’t think this is unreasonable.
Employment levels, however, will not fully recover until 2024.
Without help from Congress, he has few options to turn the U.S. economy around.
“There’s nothing more important to the economy now than people getting vaccinated,” Jerome Powell said.
The debt poses no imminent danger to U.S. finances, economists say, so the more pressing concern should be jump-starting the economy.
The government said that 5.1 million Americans are continuing to receive state jobless benefits, down from 5.2 million in the previous week.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced he will step down as CEO and move into a new role as executive chairman later this year, giving up the reins after nearly three decades during which he grew Amazon from an online book retailer into a sprawling business empire and became one of the world’s richest people in the process.
Hundreds have been deported in the last week, even as President Biden signed several executive orders Tuesday to undo the Trump administration’s hard-line anti-immigration policies.
A visit with Punxsutawney Phil, preparations for the Year of the Ox in China, a funambulist in Italy, a rocket explosion in Texas, a farmers’ protest in India, flooding in France, dogs at play on a frozen lake in Turkey, a crowded beach in Brazil, and much more.
Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week.
Chuck Collins at Inequality.org writes—The Movement for a Wealth Tax in Washington State. A levy of just 1% on wealth over $1 billion would raise more than $2 billion per year to meet the state’s urgent social needs:
Legislators in Washington state are taking bold steps towards instituting a state-level wealth tax.
Thanks to House Republicans circling the wagons around Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her history of truly gross statements and actions, Democrats had to hold a full House vote to strip her of committee assignments. That included an assignment to the education committee despite her claims that the school massacres at Sandy Hook and Parkland were hoaxes.
If you hear the keywords “GOP,” “Republican,” “transgender,’” and “sports,” you might be thinking: Which state can possibly be pushing more anti-trans legislation while we’re in a global pandemic? After all, as Daily Kos has covered, Tennessee, Idaho, and South Dakota have all recently pushed these efforts. The latest state? Utah.
First, the basics of the legislation. H.B.
Okay, campers, rise and shine!
Groundhog Day is a smidge behind us now, but that does nothing to mitigate the general sense of deja vu pervading action in statehouses these days.
Take, for instance, Wisconsin.
I wrote in this space last week about how Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin were in a rush to pass a resolution that would eliminate Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate.
Democrats in Congress spoke passionately on the House floor, some in tears, about Jan. 6, the day of the armed insurrection by pro-Trump rioters.
But if you’re still not convinced, look at these charts.
More than 350 congressional staff members signed an open letter Wednesday to the Senate, urging legislators to convict former President Donald Trump for inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. “As Congressional employees, we don’t have a vote on whether to convict Donald J. Trump for his role in inciting the violent attack at the Capitol, but our Senators do,” the staffers said in the letter.
“They’ve got to warn you about me?” the former New York City mayor asked, complaining that nobody told him the message would play.
An unexpected second wave of the virus has hit Manaus, Brazil—and brings with it new worries about reinfection. Staff writer James Hamblin explains to producer Katherine Wells what’s going on there and what it could mean for the rest of the world.
Unearthed posts showed Greene embracing QAnon and racist conspiracy theories, as well as supporting executing Democrats.
It’s NOT the economy, stupid.