In her two decades as a genital morphologist, Patricia Brennan has looked at a lot of animal clitorises. She’s seen female lizards’ two spike-studded protrusions, which are almost identical to their counterparts on males. She’s glimpsed the prominent appendage through which female spotted hyenas urinate and give birth. She’s even studied the thin-skinned, nerve-laced organ of a female dolphin, which Brennan’s work suggests makes sex pleasurable.
With potential challengers circling, Democrats must decide how to avoid a messy Arizona Senate primary now that’s she’s switched to independent.
“They can’t handle the truth,” the congresswoman said of her critics, paraphrasing Jack Nicholson’s character in “A Few Good Men,” because why not.
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.The pretense that the seditionists in the GOP are limited to a handful of kooks who worship Donald Trump is no longer sustainable. If there are any Republicans left who care about the Constitution, the time to speak up is now.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.
The defeat of prominent election deniers around the country in last month’s midterm elections is cause for relief and maybe even tempered celebration, but not complacency about the dangers to democracy.Unexpectedly bad results for Republican candidates were, I have written, the result of an anti-MAGA majority that has turned out in three consecutive elections to rebuke Donald Trump and his coalition.
These days in Hollywood, scale seems to be one of the easiest things to achieve on-screen. Breakthroughs in visual-effects technology mean that audiences get to watch one epic battle after another, and are accustomed to seeing dozens of superheroes zipping around pointlessly. James Cameron has always been a director who harnesses the latest CGI advances to whip up thrills, but with Avatar: The Way of Water, his first film in 13 years, he faces an undeniable challenge.
Even with last month’s further easing of inflation, the Federal Reserve plans to keep raising interest rates.
What does Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s defection from the Democrats mean for the party, control of the Senate and President Biden’s policy agenda? Sinema said last week that she is registering as an independent, though she will keep her committee assignments. Her announcement came just as Democrats were celebrating Senator Raphael Warnock’s reelection in Georgia, which gave Democrats 51 seats in the upper chamber.
Outgoing Republican Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona is spending nearly $100 million in his final weeks in office to erect a makeshift border wall along the state’s southern boundary with Mexico made of shipping containers and razor wire. Ducey has described it as an effort to complete former President Donald Trump’s border wall, but the shipping containers are being placed on federal and tribal lands without permission.
Leaders from 49 African nations are in Washington, D.C., this week for a three-day summit organized by the Biden administration. The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit comes as the United States is trying to counter the growing influence of China and Russia in Africa. On Monday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced a pledge of $55 billion in economic, health and security support for Africa over the next three years.
Nearly 30,000 people currently in the hospital have tested positive for Covid-19, up 30 percent since Thanksgiving.
The Coronavirus Crisis committee lays out 30 recommendations for protecting the country during future pandemics.
The move to authorize the shots comes as Covid-19 infections in the U.S. tick up amid the most intense flu season in years.
Public frustration with the restrictions appears to have finally swayed the opinion of officials.
The team overseeing licensed vaccines is overwhelmed by high turnover and a pandemic-induced backlog of inspections.
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
According to an NBC News poll released Sunday, 70 percent of registered voters expressed interest in the upcoming election as a “9” or “10” on a 10-point scale.
We speak with Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN, about the campaign to hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This week a U.S.
Brittney Griner’s release from Russia has brought renewed attention to the notorious Russian arms dealer whom the U.S. exchanged for the basketball star in a prisoner swap. Viktor Bout, the former Soviet military officer who became known as the “Merchant of Death,” was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States for conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Donald Trump has turned the Republican Party into a wasteland of losers, but they’re his loyal losers and that’s all that really matters. With his 30% base of voters and MAGA maniacs running most of the state parties, Trump will likely continue driving the GOP into the ground without paying even a smidge of a price for costing the party dearly in 2018, 2020, and once again in 2022.
Made-for-TV holiday movies are having a moment. They’ve been a personal tradition of mine for more than a decade, and the truly overwhelming profusion of options coming from outlets like Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix, Hulu, BET+, Great American Family, and more suggests that I have more company every year in my affection.
Sometime around Dec. 9 or 10, Russian forces mounted a major attack on the town of Velyka Novosilka in southern Ukraine. The Russian milblogger “Novorossiya Z.O.V.”, with 300,000 followers, reported the assault:
The decision to attack in the Velyka Novosilka area looks potentially dangerous for the right flank of the Ukrainian grouping in the Donbass.
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When I tell you that the upcoming election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is, without any doubt, the most massively important single race of the year, it’s impossible to overstate the case.
Remember the expanded child tax credit? You know, the program that singlehandedly boosted millions of American children out of poverty, only to send them crashing back down because Republicans absolutely refused to keep the program running no matter how successful it was and were, in fact, enraged that Democrats managed to pass it in the first place? The one that saw Democratic Sen.
Judge Celene Gogerty found there was no process for reversing a permanent injunction that blocked the abortion law in 2019.
The Supreme Court has refused a request from tobacco companies to stop California from enforcing a ban on flavored tobacco products that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November.
Amid a surge in hateful rhetoric and violence, President Joe Biden has formed an new interagency group to develop a national strategy to combat antisemitism.
In a phone call dated Jan. 2, 2021, the former president asked Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to give him a win in Georgia.