Covid-19 and overdose deaths drive U.S. life expectancy to a 25-year low
A baby born in 2021 can expect to live 76.4 years, down from 78.8 in 2019.
Today's Liberal News
First post-Roe spending bill includes no funding boost for family planning, angering groups
With Republicans taking the House majority next year, progressives had framed the bill as a critical opportunity.
Why Democrats warmed to severing Medicaid eligibility from the Covid public health emergency
The Congressional Budget Office assumes the public health emergency for Covid will expire in July — barring another extension by the Biden administration.
U.S. inflation slowed sharply to 7.1 percent over past 12 months
Even with last month’s further easing of inflation, the Federal Reserve plans to keep raising interest rates.
Fed jacks up rates again but Powell hints it might slow down
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
Voters remain gloomy despite recent economic gains
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
“The Quest to Defuse Guyana’s Carbon Bomb”: Meet the Environmental Lawyer Taking On ExxonMobil
We speak with Guyanese environmental lawyer Melinda Janki about how she’s taking on the oil giant ExxonMobil to stop the company from developing an offshore oil field that would turn Guyana into a “carbon bomb.” Guyana is currently a carbon sink, but Exxon plans to produce more than 1 million barrels of oil a day, which could transform the South American country into one of the world’s top oil producers by 2030.
“This Is a Racial Backlash”: Stanford Prof. Hakeem Jefferson on Role of White Supremacy in Capitol Attack
The House select committee on the January 6 attack released its final 845-page report Thursday, and the word “racism” appears only once throughout the entire document — despite the central role white supremacist groups played in the insurrection. “Those who stormed the Capitol … didn’t merely come in defense of Donald Trump,” says Stanford professor Hakeem Jefferson, an expert on issues of race and identity in American politics.
“The Central Cause of January 6th Was One Man”: House Panel Urges Trump Be Banned from Public Office
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol released its final 845-page report on the insurrection at the Capitol and Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The report names former President Trump as the central cause of the insurrection and calls for expanded efforts by the government to combat far-right and white supremacist groups.
‘Toxic masculinity’ may be caused by an actual, infectious, brain-altering parasite
When you look around America these days, it’s hard to feel like there hasn’t been some kind of Invasion of the Body Snatchers event. So many people seem not just anxious, but genuinely militant in their desire to bend back the arc of history. So many seem to be willing to work against their own best interests only because it brings other people pain.
Ukraine update: Revisiting the Day One war update
Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. For historical purposes, I thought it would be interesting to go back and revisit that first day. I had spent the entire night up, furiously consuming fragmented information coming through Twitter and Telegram sources. Things looked bleak that night. I slept little, but at first light it was already clear Russia wasn’t moving as quickly as it expected. I wrote up the following state of play at 3 PM PT.
Right-wing hypocrisy is never hypocrisy. It’s a coherent belief system
Pointing out Republican hypocrisy is always tempting. It’s so easy to come up with examples—but the sheer ease of finding those examples shows why we need a different way of understanding what might appear to be hypocrisy. Because something else entirely is going on.
I will not wave the white flag for Elon Musk
I am not leaving Twitter. Not yet.
I understand the reason many are interested in boycotting the social media platform now that Elon Musk has taken control. He appears to be turning it into a Shangri-la for right-wing trolls and hate-drenched propaganda and disinformation and he boots journalists from the platform who critique him or report on him generally.
A Pandemic Guide To Anime: Bocchi the Rock!
Welcome back to this site’s least regular ongoing series, the vastly important and criminally underlooked Pandemic Guide to Anime.
White House Wishes Black Families A Happy Kwanzaa On Holiday’s First Day
President Joe Biden commemorated the seven-day holiday honoring African heritage and Black American culture.
Biden, First Lady Thank Service Members In Christmas Calls
The president celebrated a quiet Christmas with his family at the White House and has spoken with American service members stationed around the world.
“An Immense World”: Ed Yong on How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
Ed Yong, the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer at The Atlantic, talks about his recent book, “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us.
To Catch a Dictator: Human Rights Lawyer Reed Brody on the Pursuit and Trial of Chad’s Hissène Habré
In this special broadcast, we speak with Reed Brody, the international human rights lawyer who has been called “the dictator hunter” for his role in bringing historic legal cases against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and others. Brody’s new book is just out, titled “To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré.” Habré, a former U.S.
Rian Johnson’s Primal Scream
This article contains mild spoilers for the film Knives Out.When I last spoke with the filmmaker Rian Johnson, in 2019, he was two years removed from working on one of the world’s biggest franchises—Star Wars—and had quickly turned around a smaller, nimbler mystery-comedy set in wintery Massachusetts called Knives Out. That was enough of a hit that it started a new franchise around Daniel Craig’s lilting detective, Benoit Blanc.
Packed ICUs, crowded crematoriums: Covid roils Chinese towns
As China grapples with its first-ever national Covid-19 wave, emergency wards in small cities and towns southwest of Beijing are overwhelmed.
No One Can Decide If Grapefruit Is Dangerous
Roughly a century ago, a new fad diet began to sweep the United States. Hollywood starlets such as Ethel Barrymore supposedly swore by it; the citrus industry hopped on board. All a figure-conscious girl had to do was eat a lot of grapefruit for a week, or two, or three.The Grapefruit Diet, like pretty much all other fad diets, is mostly bunk.
The TV Shows That Helped My Dying Son Communicate
When you have a kid with a severe illness, whatever makes them happy during it becomes immeasurably valuable to you—no matter how small.I learned this when my 1-year-old son, Henry, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. As part of his treatment, he had to get a tracheostomy—a breathing tube was inserted in the base of his neck and prevented him from talking.
I Love My Clutter, Thank You Very Much
A confession, first: I love clutter.The horizontal surfaces in my family room are covered with newspapers, magazines, books I’ve started, books I intend to read, books I want to read but never will, erasable pens, a sweatshirt or two, a soccer ball, a bucket of toy cars, and wayward Legos that gouge my stockinged feet.
The Great Big Medicare Rip-Off
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill establishing Medicare in 1965, he explained that it was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legacy of government support for those who need it most, the elderly and the poor. At the time, there were essentially no options for older, nonworking Americans to get health coverage.
In one state Senate race, signs of a national struggle over abortion
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy in his recently released budget, but doesn’t yet have the votes to enact that ban.
Covid-19 and overdose deaths drive U.S. life expectancy to a 25-year low
A baby born in 2021 can expect to live 76.4 years, down from 78.8 in 2019.
First post-Roe spending bill includes no funding boost for family planning, angering groups
With Republicans taking the House majority next year, progressives had framed the bill as a critical opportunity.
Why Democrats warmed to severing Medicaid eligibility from the Covid public health emergency
The Congressional Budget Office assumes the public health emergency for Covid will expire in July — barring another extension by the Biden administration.
‘THE central issue’: How the fall of Roe v. Wade shook the 2022 election
More than 50 Democratic and Republican elected officials, campaign aides and consultants took POLITICO inside the first campaign after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
The Avatar Sequel’s Worst Character Actually Does the Film a Service
This story contains major spoilers for the film Avatar: The Way of Water.Avatar: The Way of Water, like any good world-building sequel, introduces a deluge of new elements to its extraterrestrial setting of Pandora. There are different locations to visit, such as the home of the Metkayina, a reef-dwelling clan. There are strange species to meet, such as the whalelike tulkun.