Fed set to launch fresh assault on inflation in new era for economy
Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue.
Today's Liberal News
Surprise GDP slump undercuts White House recovery story
The government said gross domestic product shrank at a 1.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter.
U.S. economy shrank by 1.4 percent in Q1 but consumers kept spending
The steady spending suggested the economy could keep expanding this year even though the Federal Reserve plans to raise rates aggressively to fight the inflation surge.
IMF warns of ‘severe’ global economic risk from war in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine will “severely” set back the global recovery from Covid-19, according to the IMF.
GOP Senator Likens Women To Wildlife In ‘Ridiculous’ Anti-Abortion Argument
“Why do we have laws in place that protect the eggs of a sea turtle or the eggs of eagles?” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) asked.
Ex-Labor Secretary Breaks Down How Second American Civil War Is Already Underway
Clinton-era Cabinet member Robert Reich likened the accelerating split between GOP and Democratic states to an unhappy marriage.
Chris Christie Hits Trump Where It Hurts Most With Scathing Twitter Retort
The ex-president attacked the former governor and two current GOP governors as “RINOs.
News Roundup: Eastman advised erasing votes in Pennsylvania; Supreme Court in (worse) disarray
Every new document describing Trump adviser John Eastman’s efforts to erase the 2020 United States presidential election seems more outrageous than the last; the latest release is of an email to a Pennsylvania Republican advising state lawmakers to simply declare that a certain percentage of votes would be “discarded” to account for unproven Republican-claimed fraud.
Ukraine update: ‘Their objective was to cross the river and encircle Lysychansk. They failed.’
The fact that 24 hours later we’re still waiting for confirmation of Ukrainian forces at Ternova is certainly concerning, but then, it took at least that long to confirm that Ukraine had recaptured Staryi Saltiv. It’s almost as if the Ukrainian troops at the vanguard of assaults in the Kharkiv area have been told to not immediately send video clips and photographs—conveniently geolocated—of their every move.
Ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn whines about DOD’s bid to seize blood money Putin gave him
Michael Flynn served in the Trump administration for approximately as long as it takes Donald Trump’s languorous, M.C. Escher-like grotesquerie of a colon to pass a Happy Meal. He was our country’s national security adviser for about three weeks in early 2017, during which time he did his level best to make Vladimir Putin’s dewiest wet dreams come true.
‘She, not he’: Psaki has no patience for Fox News reporter’s gotcha question
White House press secretary Jen Psaki continues her farewell slam dunk contest tour. On Tuesday, she spoke with reporters about the Biden administration’s plans to lower inflation and help the working families and seniors in our country that are most affected by the widening economic inequality in our society.
The Biden administration didn’t have much work to do since Sen.
Tucker Carlson wastes no time being racist about new White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Okay, I’ll admit that I rarely watch Fox News, much less Tucker Carlson, but even from what I have watched, his latest attack Tuesday on the new White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was more homophobic and racist than usual.
I guess Carlson really wanted to say how much he hates that a Black, out LGBTQ+ person was in a position of power. That wouldn’t fill enough air-time, though, so he went on a vicious, bigoted attack.
Supreme Court Justices To Meet For 1st Time Since Roe Draft Ruling Leak
The draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, would overturn Roe v. Wade and restrict abortion rights in many states.
Congress Mad About Baby Formula Shortage, But It Has A Shortage Of Solutions
The Food and Drug Administration said it is working to ramp up production of baby formula after a major manufacturer announced a recall earlier this year.
The Email That Shows the Absurdity of the Paperwork Coup
One of the most dangerous elements of Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election is how it collapsed the gap between two distinct functions: electioneering and election administration. Both are political, insofar as elected officials oversee elections, but they begin from different premises.
Can Anyone Out-Plan a Pandemic?
In this, the season of Bill Gates’s atonement, the billionaire is willing to acknowledge that things don’t always turn out as they should have, and that—at least in some cases—that’s on him.
Heartstopper and the Era of Feel-Good, Queer-Teen Romances
When the producer Patrick Walters first read the romance comic Heartstopper, he knew it had to be a TV show. There was something about the way the author, Alice Oseman, had illustrated the story that gave him “butterflies,” he told me over Zoom. The characters—a pair of teen boys falling in love—were adorably expressive, all wide eyes and furtive glances captured in fine strokes.
Is Gen Z Coddled, or Caring?
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
The Calamity of Unwanted Motherhood
The protagonist of Penelope Mortimer’s 1958 novel, Daddy’s Gone a-Hunting, is a 37-year-old housewife named Ruth, who is sliding into a madness of midlife suffocation and despair. Alone in her kitchen early in the novel, Ruth drinks gin and tentatively confesses to an imagined listener the source of all her angst. When she married Rex, her trivial bully of a husband, at 18, she was three months pregnant with their daughter, Angela.
U.S. drug overdose deaths surpass 107,000 last year, another record
More than 1 million Americans have died from drug overdoses since 2001.
U.S. inflation hit 8.3% last month but slows from 40-year high
On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.3% from March to April, a still-elevated rate but the smallest increase in eight months.
“They Just Fired Me”: Meet the 2 Terminated Amazon Warehouse Workers Fighting Attempt to Crush Union
Amazon has fired two workers who helped organize the first successful U.S. union at Amazon’s Staten Island JFK8 warehouse. This comes as the National Labor Relations Board on Monday upheld a complaint that Amazon violated labor law in the Staten Island union vote by holding mandatory worker meetings to dissuade employees from voting to unionize.
“On Our Side”: NLRB Sues Starbucks to Reinstate “Memphis 7” Workers Illegally Fired for Union Drive
In a major development, the National Labor Relations Board announced Tuesday night it is suing Starbucks to immediately rehire seven Memphis Starbucks workers who were illegally fired in retaliation for their union efforts.
Nobel Peace Laureate Maria Ressa on Return of the Marcos Dynasty & Social Media Disinformation
We go to Manila to speak with Filipina Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa about Monday’s presidential election in the Philippines, where Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — the only son of the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos — appears to have won in a landslide alongside his running mate, the daughter of current President Rodrigo Duterte.
Palestinian American Reporter Shireen Abu Akleh Killed in Israeli Raid in Jenin, “Brave” Truth Teller
Israeli forces have shot and killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian American journalist working for Al Jazeera, as she covered an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp early Wednesday morning. Video released by Al Jazeera shows Abu Akleh was wearing a press uniform when she was shot in the head by what the network says was a single round fired by an Israeli sniper.
Blue states want to become abortion safe havens. It will cost them.
Groups that operate clinics and run abortion access funds warn that they’ll need more money, more providers and more space to help care for the influx of people who will cross state lines to seek abortions.
Democratic AG candidates pitch themselves as the last line of defense on abortion
With the heightened possibility that abortion rights could, in a matter of weeks, be an issue left to the states, attorney general candidates across the country are reminding voters of the stakes.
U.S. to ask world for more on global Covid fight as its own cash dwindles
Ahead of the summit, some officials worry the Biden administration’s effort is hobbled by a lack of additional pandemic response funding.
White House warns of Covid surges in the winter
Ashish Jha urges more funding for vaccinations and testing.
Fed set to launch fresh assault on inflation in new era for economy
Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue.