Eleven thousand lightning strikes, 370 wildfires, a pandemic, a heat wave, and rolling blackouts—California has endured a lot this week. Hundreds of thousands of acres have burned, and tens of thousands of people have had to evacuate. The largest of the blazes—the LNU Lightning Complex fires, which alone span Napa, Sonoma, Solano, and Lake Counties—is only 7 percent contained.One disaster is bad. Two are worse, but the damage doesn’t just double.
On this episode of Social Distance, the comedian Maeve Higgins is back home in New York after weathering the pandemic’s first peak in her native Ireland. She joins James Hamblin to talk about her strange journey back to the United States, and the strange moment the country finds itself in.James Fallows returns to reflect on the Democratic National Convention and why politics (unlike comedy) might actually be better without the crowds.
Political speeches make up a strange genre of writing. This year’s Democratic National Convention has showcased their breadth, featuring Barack Obama’s fearful warning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s self-aggrandizing remarks, a disjointed keynote from 17 “rising stars,” and Michelle Obama’s forceful call to action.Speeches such as these can influence a figure’s legacy. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words highlight his eloquence and vision.
Harvard professor Cornel West and Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former president of the NAACP, discuss the 2020 DNC, Joe Biden’s vow to fight systemic racism and “overcome this season of darkness in America,” the historic nomination of Kamala Harris as his partner on the ticket, and how the convention was a showcase for a broad anti-Trump coalition, including prominent Republican figures given plum speaking slots, but few voices from the party&rsq
We air highlights from Joe Biden’s highly anticipated speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, in which he formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, focused on the dangers of President Trump’s reelection and pledged to address the four simultaneous crises of systemic racism, the pandemic, the economic downturn and the climate crisis. “United, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America,” Biden said.
The 2020 Democratic National Convention has wrapped up, with speakers on the final night including California Governor Gavin Newsom, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and 13-year-old Brayden Harrington, who talked about how Joe Biden had personally helped him with his stutter. We air highlights from the evening’s addresses.
I don’t want to be caught in a lie, but how much does a degree matter anyway?
Words of praise in the White House Rose Garden led to calls for boycott.
Parenting advice on anger issues, rice cereal drama, and spanking.
The postmaster general said he’ll stop screwing with the mail—but he left some wiggle room.
The story is a lot bigger—and weirder—than a simple change in consumer tastes.
The photographer has a privileged “position of looking.
A Supreme Court decision on the lawsuit isn’t likely until the spring.
Monday’s decision didn’t address other provisions of Trump’s revised nondiscrimination rules.
The shortage list was released hours after President Donald Trump touted the progress his administration has made in securing critical protective gear.
Both Kyle McGowan and Amanda Campbell have been with the health department since the start of the Trump administration.
In the debate over Covid-19 relief, Congress is worried about the wrong problem.
For the April-June period, Japan’s exports dropped at a whopping annual rate of 56 percent.
Asked when she would next be meeting with Republicans, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday: “I don’t know. When they come in with $2 trillion.
“It is clear that the UK is in the largest recession on record,” the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
Donald Trump’s executive order wouldn’t do much to immediately help the 20 million or so Americans who face losing their homes in the next few months.
You could hear the stutter in Brayden’s lungs, all those heavy inhalations, his search for sounds that wouldn’t come. The 13-year-old stared into a stationary camera and told the world about his problem, the affliction he shares with 3 million Americans, one of whom is now the Democratic nominee for president.“Without Joe Biden, I wouldn’t be talking with you today,” Brayden began. A big smile revealed braces.
Retired police dog adoptions in Ecuador, ballet in Brazil, an open-air brass band rehearsal in Wales, the Criterium du Dauphine cycling race in France, record heat in Death Valley and wildfires across California, a cool bear in Kosovo, scenes from the the Democratic National Convention, a sail-in floating cinema in Israel, and much more.
Joe Biden appeared on a stage, not in Milwaukee, but in Wilmington, Delaware to accept the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. But if the convention was constrained by the disaster that’s resulted from Donald Trump’s malignant neglect of the COVID-19 crisis, there was nothing small about Biden’s speech.
In a long career, Joe Biden has delivered many speeches, but none of them were a match for what he did on Thursday evening.
The president said the progressive lawmaker “knows nothing about the environment” and “probably never studied.
Well, folks, this is it. The last night of a 2020 political convention not dedicated to hate and divisiveness, and the moment former Vice President Joe Biden formally accepts the Democratic nomination for president.
The main hour of programming begins at 10 PM ET. You can watch the DNC online here.
Because the Democratic nominee moved out as a child, he really wasn’t born in Scranton, the president told a perplexed Pennsylvania crowd.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has over 600,000 workers across the United States, and has been, as you know, under attack by Donald Trump, who, in his reckless attempt to screw up mail-in ballots, is also wreaking havoc on the lives of USPS employees. As a side benefit for the Bigot in Chief, he gets yet another opportunity to harm Black folks.
A Black North Carolina police officer who defended George Floyd in a viral TikTok video has been fired from the Greensboro Police Department after an accusation he violated the department’s social media policy by wearing his uniform in the video. Former officer Ja’Quay Williams said in a TikTok video posted to YouTube Thursday that he’s been on administrative leave for two months while the department investigated his TikTok account.
