Новости за 28.01.2022

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell opposes the Build Back Better bill because it’s too inflationary, especially for the energy sector. It “would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on Green New Deal-type policies that would saddle families with even higher prices” for oil, he complained in November.

The maximalist novel, switching in its long narrative journey between different time periods or genres—or sometimes both—has over the years become something of a genre in itself. Even as a significant slice of literary fiction turns ever more slender and novella-like, too weary in its ennui to sketch out more than thoughts and emotions, a countercurrent exists in massive novels that purport to capture many things. Unlike earlier books by writers like Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, soldering their... Читать дальше...

There is a movement afoot just as insidious as right-wingers refusing to wear masks and get vaccinated. It’s progressives who are fully vaccinated but whose overcautious attitude toward Covid is harming a generation of children and preventing society from getting over the pandemic.

In December 1988, the leader of the Soviet Union made a remarkable announcement at the United Nations. Mikhail Gorbachev declared the unilateral withdrawal of half a million Soviet troops from countries in Eastern Europe. “Further world progress is now possible only through the search for a consensus of all mankind, in movement toward a new world order,” he said.

Fifty years after the publication of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson’s celebrity remains a durable fact. Yet there was nothing inevitable about his notoriety or the style that gave rise to it. Gonzo journalism—Thompson’s unique blend of hyperbolic commentary, satire, invective, hallucination, and media critique—developed unevenly, haphazardly, almost by accident. That body of work, and the rock-star celebrity it created, almost didn’t happen.

Earlier this month, the federal agency most beloved by national security reporters threw some cold water on a conspiracy theory that corner of the media ecosystem has been peddling for years: Per interim findings of a CIA investigation described widely by spokespeople, “Havana Syndrome” is not a sustained campaign targeting U.S. personnel with directed energy weapons around the world. (They did stipulate, however, that they can’t yet definitively rule out “attacks” in about two dozen cases out of hundreds... Читать дальше...

The biggest news this week on the insurrection front comes not from the January 6 select committee, but from the Justice Department. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told CNN on Tuesday that the department is investigating the illegitimate slate of electors that falsely declared Trump the winner of the election in seven battleground states carried by Joe Biden. Looks like Merrick Garland’s DOJ, absorbing regular punches from liberals angry that it isn’t being aggressive enough on the protect-democracy beat... Читать дальше...

Of all the pandemic-fighting elements in short supply, the situation with monoclonal antibodies, a potentially life-saving drug that’s effective against omicron, is particularly grim. Minnesota, a state of over five million, received fewer than 600 doses this week. There is another antibody drug that could protect immunocompromised people whose bodies would reject a vaccine—many of whom have remained on lockdown for close to two years—but it’s nearly impossible to find. By some estimates, the... Читать дальше...