Earlier in the week voting machine manufacturers Smartmatic and Dominion let it be known to conservative conspiracy peddlers Fox News and Newsmax that they would likely be filing lawsuits after the “news” outlets promoted 100% fake, and known fake, claims about the voting machine companies somehow being in cahoots to cheat Donald Trump out of an election win.
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.With under a month left in office, President Donald Trump is flexing his power, issuing a slew of pardons and a veto. His actions may stun, but not necessarily surprise.
The president granted 26 more pardons, some of them to close allies, a day after granting clemency to 20 others.
Nostradamus had nothing on George Mason. The French seer earned a reputation for prophecy that was grounded, for the most part, in vague and ambiguous predictions of future events whose malleability allowed supporters to claim he was prescient. As with the Delphic oracle who came before him, Nostradamus’s reputation for foresight was unearned.George Mason, however, deserves his reputation for the precision of his predictions.
Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. December is now the deadliest month of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.Since the spring, month by month, the country had held the death toll below the terrible peak of the early pandemic, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. April began with 4,332 dead and ended with 59,599 dead—an increase of 55,267.
Educator Barbara Johns in an undated photo.
A statue of Barbara Johns, a civil rights activist who played a major role in desegregating Virginia’s public schools, will soon stand in the U.S. Capitol, replacing the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that has stood in the National Statuary Hall Collection for 111 years. That will make her the only Black person and one of the few women to represent a state in the Capitol.
This marks Trump’s 31st golf trip to his Palm Beach resort, which in total account for just over two-thirds of his golf-related travel and security costs.
America’s most populous state has become one of the nation’s worst epicenters for the coronavirus.
2020 has been a year of ongoing protests and demonstrations for change across the globe. It has also been the year the world saw not only the largest but longest single protest to date. For almost a month now, tens of thousands of farmers in India have marched and protested against three bills passed in India’s parliament in September.
States last week were blindsided by lower-than-expected allocations of a Covid vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.
Republican Trump voters are more likely to identify with the president than their political party, a new survey finds.
Since early this summer, Keith Poulsen, the director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, was worried about mink. Poulsen’s lab is part of a national network of veterinary labs that work on animal diseases, and they had “been watching COVID-19 very carefully,” Poulsen told me. In Europe, mink on fur farms were catching COVID-19. And they seemed to be able to pass it back to people.
Congress has enough votes to override a veto on the National Defense Authorization Act.
If he’s willing to do a coup, he’s probably willing to do this.
Even his therapist believes him!
I am getting depressed at the thought of being alone for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has been named by Governor Gavin Newsom to replace Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate, making history as the first Latinx senator to represent the state. Padilla was first elected to public office at 26, when he joined the Los Angeles City Council, and went on to serve two terms in the state Senate, followed by two terms as the state’s secretary of state.
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated Connecticut public schools commissioner Miguel Cardona for secretary of education, tapping a third Latinx person to join his Cabinet. Cardona is a former teacher who represents a sharp break from outgoing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who urged career employees at the Education Department earlier this month to “be the resistance” to the incoming administration.
The problems of this system go a lot deeper than a new stimulus bill.
The $1.95 billion agreement doubles the overall U.S. order for the vaccine to 200 million doses.
As the U.S. averages more than 200,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, we speak with Dr. Cleavon Gilman, an emergency physician who has been treating patients since the beginning of the U.S. outbreak, first in New York City and now in Yuma, Arizona. Dr. Gilman is also an Iraq War veteran who served as a Marine combat medic, and has kept a public diary of his experiences treating COVID-19 patients.
Parenting advice on sex talks, relationship stress, and yelling.
It’ll only be enough if the vaccination effort doesn’t blow it.
GOP Senators are holding a relief deal hostage in order to kneecap the Fed—and the Biden administration—in a crisis.
Hospitals and doctors watered down a solution to payment feuds backed by employers groups and insurers.
Biden added that the appointees have “broad viewpoints on how to build a stronger and more inclusive middle class.
Officials said they expect the U.S. economy to shrink by 2.4 percent this year, a brighter forecast than they offered just three months ago.
Vaccine euphoria is giving economic forecasters hope for a blockbuster 2021 and stretching stock market valuations to historic highs. It’s a setup that leaves no room for error.
A former high-level employee at Heather Boushey’s think tank publicly aired the accusations on Tuesday night.
