How many Covid deaths are acceptable? Some Biden officials tried to guess.
Conversations about what Americans would tolerate didn’t go too far, underscoring the difficulty of explaining when the pandemic will end.
Today's Liberal News
More cases of monkeypox expected as CDC warns of community spread
Since May, there have been more than 700 global cases of monkeypox identified in countries outside West and Central Africa where the virus is endemic.
China’s fragility feeds the doom-mongers in Davos
Fêted at the World Economic Forum in 2017, Xi Jinping is now accused of torpedoing the global economy with his disastrous Zero Covid strategy.
RIP Davos Man, long live globalization
Open markets aren’t what they used to be. A more complicated, more regional economic system is reshaping the global order.
U.S. economy is in a ‘period of transition,’ White House economic adviser says
Despite high inflation, the U.S. is “moving from the strongest economic recovery in modern history to what can be a period of more stable and resilient growth,” Brian Deese said.
House Republicans Suggest More Prayers Would Solve Mass Shooting Problem
Shooting survivors and victims’ families addressed the House Oversight Committee on gun deaths. Republicans, though, blamed lack of prayer, not guns.
News roundup: Gun violence survivors testify in the House as Jan. 6 committee prepares for hearing
It was a gutting day on Capitol Hill as survivors of gun violence, including a child who covered herself in her dead friend’s blood to survive the Uvalde mass shooting and the parents of a child who died, testified before a House committee.
“Today we stand for Lexi and as her voice, we demand action,” Kimberly Rubio said in her daughter’s honor. “We seek a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.
Colorado attorney general reviewing Lauren Boebert’s dubious campaign spending for fraud
First they came for Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. Now, as foretold, they are coming for Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. The battle for control over what will be the Neo-fascist Republican Party continues as a new leak of dirty dealings makes its way back into the public sphere. Boebert is running for re-election in Colorado’s 3rd District, and the conservative Super PAC group that helped run media attacks on Rep.
House Democrats are investigating foreign gifts that apparently went ‘missing’ under Trump’s watch
It’s looking increasingly like Donald Trump illegally made off with a bunch of foreign gifts without notifying anyone. Why? Because he’s Donald Effing Trump, you naif.
It’s unlikely Trump wanted to be president just so he could steal stuff when he left, but he had to see that as a perk—and without question, it was inevitable. If he’d worked at Chuck E. Cheese, he would have stolen an animatronic banjo-playing bear.
Ukraine update: Russia wants to turn Kherson into a colony to feed Putin’s dreams of an empire
It’s not necessary for an occupying power to win a battle in order to cause irredeemable damage. They don’t even have to destroy a building. After all, they have something that gives them a leverage unmatched by the people giving everything in the effort to drive them out: hostages. Thousands, even millions, of hostages.
New cancer drug destroyed 100% of tumors in trial, but it’s not quite the miracle the media claims
On Monday, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a new treatment for a specific form of cancer. In that trial, all 12 patients that completed treatment with the new drug, called dostarlimab, had what was called a “100% response.” That is, every one of these patients saw their tumors completely eradicated.
Drug trails, especially early trials, often give murky results.
Rep. Ted Lieu Silently Schools GOP On Jesus Christ’s Comments About Homosexuality
“I just thought I would now recite what Jesus Christ said about homosexuality,” the Democratic congressman told his fellow House members.
House Approves Gun Control Bills, Including Higher Age For Assault Rifles
The bills don’t stand a chance of passing the Senate, however, which is working on more modest legislation.
U.S. Proposes New Marine Sanctuary Off New York, Home To Sperm Whales And Sea Turtles
The Interior Department also announced an effort to bar single-use plastics from public lands, including national parks.
Savannah Guthrie Reveals Husband Consulted For Johnny Depp’s Legal Team
The “Today” show host is married to Michael Feldman, who founded a PR consultancy firm with other Democratic campaign alumni.
The Dinosaurs Deserved Better
In Jurassic World: Dominion, a fate worse than extinction has cruelly visited the cloned dinosaurs that have been roaming on silver screens since 1993: They’ve become mundane. A nuisance. The kind of pests you might call your local wildlife department about, as you peek out your window onto the backyard and say with a sigh, “Honey, there’s another pack of Compsognathus trampling the daffodils.
Do Voters See a Difference Between Crime and Homelessness?
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.
Biden’s Climate Goals Rest on a 71-Year-Old Defense Law
Sign up for The Weekly Planet, Robinson Meyer’s newsletter about living through climate change, here.A legal relic dating back to the Korean War has become one of the White House’s most important tools to pursue its climate goals.On Monday, the White House announced that it was invoking the Defense Production Act to boost manufacturing of certain technologies that will be essential for decarbonization, such as solar panels, heat pumps, and transformers for the electrical grid.
POLITICO-Harvard poll: Majority of Americans support more Covid aid for the uninsured
At the same time, more than six in 10 respondents believe that more congressional spending on Covid aid will contribute to inflation.
Is This the End of the George Floyd Moment?
Since the massive nationwide protests that erupted in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, the debate over crime and public safety in the Democratic Party has been dominated by urgent calls for reforming police departments and confronting entrenched racial inequities in the criminal-justice system. History might record yesterday’s elections in San Francisco and Los Angeles as the end of that moment.
“Intensify the Search”: Journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous Expert Bruno Pereira Missing in Brazil
British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira have still not been found, after being reported missing Sunday in one of Brazil’s most remote areas of the Amazon. The pair were traveling across the region to interview Indigenous leaders patrolling the area for illegal miners and fishers for Phillips’s upcoming book. “We know that they had been receiving threats.
Indigenous Amazon Leader, Excluded from Summit of Americas, Urges Leaders to Protect Rainforest
The Biden administration has denied members of an Indigenous delegation from the Amazon rainforest entry at this week’s U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas. Meanwhile, President Biden agreed to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who told Biden he would only attend the conference if he was guaranteed immunity from criticism on his systematic destruction of the Amazon rainforest, among other policies.
“Global Embarrassment”: Mexico & More Skip Biden’s Summit of Americas for Excluding Cuba, Venezuela
Top leaders from Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are all absent from the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced he would boycott the conference after the U.S. said it would not invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Billionaire Democracy? San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin Ousted in Recall & L.A. Mayor Race Heads to Runoff
Progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was ousted by voters Tuesday in a special recall election, after facing well-funded tough-on-crime attacks by the real estate industry. “He made enemies with very, very deep pockets,” says Lara Bazelon, professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and chair of Boudin’s Innocence Commission, who describes the primary challenge as a “perfect storm” to take down Boudin.
How many Covid deaths are acceptable? Some Biden officials tried to guess.
Conversations about what Americans would tolerate didn’t go too far, underscoring the difficulty of explaining when the pandemic will end.
More cases of monkeypox expected as CDC warns of community spread
Since May, there have been more than 700 global cases of monkeypox identified in countries outside West and Central Africa where the virus is endemic.
Can long Covid lead to death? A new analysis suggests it could
The CDC is beginning to look at death certificates that indicate more than 100 people who died had long Covid.
China’s fragility feeds the doom-mongers in Davos
Fêted at the World Economic Forum in 2017, Xi Jinping is now accused of torpedoing the global economy with his disastrous Zero Covid strategy.
RIP Davos Man, long live globalization
Open markets aren’t what they used to be. A more complicated, more regional economic system is reshaping the global order.
U.S. economy is in a ‘period of transition,’ White House economic adviser says
Despite high inflation, the U.S. is “moving from the strongest economic recovery in modern history to what can be a period of more stable and resilient growth,” Brian Deese said.