Last year, Bush came before Congress as a man who refused to cede any ground on Iraq, lambasting Democrats for their “defeatism” on the war. Last night was a different story, as Bush essentially pleaded with Democrats and many Republicans to stick with him on his plan to send additional troops to Iraq. “This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in,” Bush somberly admitted, urging lawmakers to “give it a chance to work....
I understand that for parents, this may be a time of confusion and even shock. You might think you did something wrong, and you might blame yourself. Please know that this isn’t something you did, and it also isn’t something you can change. The most important thing you can do for your child is to affirm their identity — and it’s important that you affirm versus accept. Affirming means you’re stating it as a fact and offering emotional encouragement and support....
Here is my “halftime report” as to where the race stands and what each candidate should do to win, as the campaigns enter their final phase after the conventions. I’ll start with an understatement: This race has been greatly impacted by the Chinese coronavirus and the killing of George Floyd. These unique overlapping, and now integrating sets of circumstances (not to mention living in the wake of the Mueller investigation and impeachment) make this election unlike any other in American history....
Why were you arrested? I was called up by the office of the prosecutor general to provide explanations about materials they obtained during the search [May 11] of the Media-Most offices. [The investigator and I] talked for an hour or so. And then he said: “My boss would like to talk to you.” I said, “Sure.” He said, “Some other people too are expecting you [in the office next door]....
Asia’s forests are being destroyed at a staggering rate, and the finger of blame is now pointing at China. Over the past three decades, Japan’s hunger for timber helped destroy the rain forests of the Philippines and Borneo. Ecologists now fear China will chop down the rest, thanks in part to a cruel irony. In 1998, after the People’s Republic was hit by devastating floods caused by deforestation, Beijing banned logging along the upper reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers–and called for a drastic reduction in other provinces....
We’ve had the opportunity to study poverty deeply. Rep. Lee has chaired the Congressional Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity since 2013. Rep. Jayapal chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Both of us worked closely with the Poor People’s Campaign to produce a “People’s Agenda” for pandemic recovery. Even before the pandemic, more than two in five people in this country were poor or low-income, just $400 or less away from financial ruin....
But it was a better-known Bay Area baseball player who made headlines upon A-Rod’s milestone: Barry Bonds. MORE: Padres walk off with grand slam | Tanaka to return | Astros want Cueto? With his 1,996th RBI, Rodriguez tied Bonds for second on the official RBI list. The same Bonds rooting for Rodriguez to surpass fellow Giants superstar and godfather Willie Mays on the career home run leaderboard. The same Bonds who, yes, like Rodriguez, has an unofficial asterisk next to his stats because of suspicions of performance-enhancing drug use....
A-Rod having his suspension upheld, then showing up to Yankees spring training in full uniform, living in a rented Winnebago and blasting The Standells’ “Dirty Water” until he is hauled away by police? Sure, why not? A-Rod announcing plans to start his own baseball enterprise, the No Buds League, in which Bud Norris is allowed, but Bud Selig is not, because one Bud is fine, but, sorry, no Buds? Sure, why not?...
The first Olympic Games I recall clearly were in Mexico City in 1968, where the triumphs of Cathy Rigby and George Foreman made the news alongside the raised-fist anthem protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Four years later, we watched the record-shattering gold medal exploits of Mark Spitz while reeling from the terrorist attack on 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. The 1980 Winter Olympics brought the “Miracle on Ice,” but just weeks later Americans withdrew from the Summer Games as part of a boycott protesting the Soviet incursion into Afghanistan....
The project kicked off on February 1, when Penguin invited users across the world to help write a new novel. Each visitor was given the power to begin adding to Jane Eyre’s opening line (“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day,”) and a few initial paragraphs. Starting with grad students from Leicester’s De Montfort University, a surge of traffic soon flooded into the “Million” Web site. Legions of bookish visitors quickly sent the company scrambling in search of new servers and shattered the novel’s narrative into countless bits....
Taliban leader Mohammed Omar condemned the attack and urged the U.N. and Washington “to find the real causes and pinpoint the enemy.” Taking the lead, Pakistani antiterror specialists examined the four shells discharged in the attack and the identification numbers of the assailants’ three vehicles. Omar and bin Laden were said to have relayed messages to the Pakistani military denying responsibility, but that did not erase them from a long list of suspects that included other exiled Arab dissidents living in Pakistan....
Some Americans continue to wait upon the money granted to them by the CARES Act, to assist them through the economic hardship spurred by the COVID-19 outbreak, while polling suggests many would like to see another round of money distributed to assist them during the pandemic. However, it is unclear whether such further support will be approved with the House-approved HEROES Act, which includes such measures, stalling in the Senate due to GOP opposition....
To find out what these towns were fighting so hard to protect, NEWSWEEK isited Greenfield (population: 18,666) for a firsthand look at the small-town shopping experience. What we found: high prices, little service and less charm than one might expect. Anti-Wal-Mart crusaders say the chain would put downtown retailers on the street. Still, you’d think that most Greenfieldians would be welcoming. After all, isn’t this the town that has proclaimed itself a “major industrial and commercial center,” where one of America’s first cutlery factories was launched?...
It’s no quick fix. Even if Congress instantly adopted the plan (and that won’t happen), it wouldn’t rescue many already ailing banks. Although most of the nation’s 12,400 banks are healthy, roughly 1,000 - including some major banks - are not. Their problems mostly reflect poor management: they made a lot of bum loans. But outdated government regulation allowed the troubles to occur. Historically, each of our major bank reforms has repaired the failure of the previous reform....
If anything, the atmosphere was getting even more belligerent. “This is the most dangerous time in the Mideast in 20 years,” a senior White House official acknowledges. Within the occupied territories, U.S. and Israeli officials fear, Palestinians are growing so impatient with the lack of political progress that the uprising may escalate from stones to the use of guns and bombs. PLO chairman Yasir Arafat himself seems unable to challenge the rejectionists within the organization; externally he appears to be drifting closer to the hard-line Saddam Hussein....
Subprime borrowers have modest credit scores and little or no cash for a down payment. They took “exploding” loans, at 7 to 9 percent for the first two or three years, expecting to refinance at lower rates. But the market turned against them. Their rates are jumping to 10 or 15 percent, which they can’t afford. So far, most lenders are handling defaults one slow case at a time. If they offer any help at all, it’s a stretched-out payment plan (including late charges and piles of mystery fees)....
His supporters say Werbach’s talents and enthusiasm outweigh his shortage of experience. In particular, they like his innocence of Beltway politics. Club dissidents have been grousing that the organization has become too much an old boys’ club that, to curry favor with other Washington insiders, takes timid positions. Exhibit A: a membership vote in April went 2 to 1 in favor of banning logging in national forests even though the board of directors had long shied from such an absolutist stance....
Advance copies of the book have made its author the hot topic in New York literary and theatrical circles. Besides Roth, Bloom candidly discuses her two previous marriages and her numerous affairs with the likes of Yul Brynner, Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton. (No, she didn’t have an affair with Elvis, but he flirted with her once.) But it’s Bloom’s attempt to give Roth a dose of his own invective that has people talking....
