Too often writers treat extreme subjects simply to get our attention–gee, imagine a writer wanting attention–or to misdirect it from literary defects. But Gaitskill seems to have a vision rather than a career agenda. Her characters do their share of plain and fancy coupling, but her true subject is their essential disconnectedness and their sometimes pathetic, sometimes heroic solitude. Much of what happens between her people is suggested in a single sentence in the story “Orchid,” about a womanizer’s unhappy girlfriends: “They would look at Patrick as if calmly measuring the distance between him and them, as if they knew that his little area of private space was closed to them, but that was all right because they had their own little area they were planning to go back to once they got what they came for–although of course it often didn’t work out that way....

“I have great confidence in General Milley,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. Several Republicans, including members of Congress, have called for Milley’s ouster over allegations that he sidestepped then-President Donald Trump to assure the Chinese government that the United States wouldn’t plot a surprise attack. Milley’s most ardent critics, already disturbed by the chaotic end to the war in Afghanistan last month, have accused him of treason and called for him to face being court-martialed over his interactions with China....

Responding to Trump’s remarks, former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been consistently polling in at number one among 2020 candidates in recent months, tweeted: “America’s strength is and has always been rooted in our diversity. But President Trump continues to spew hateful rhetoric, sow division, and stoke racial tensions for his own political gain. “Let’s be clear: Racism and xenophobia have no place in America,” the 76-year-old Democrat added....

While defending a proposed budget for fiscal year 2022 in front of the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee, Mayorkas said the DHS is focused on innovation and technology to improve border security. “When you take a look at the border as a whole, it is not one size fits all,” Mayorkas said. “The border is very dynamic. There are different needs and challenges at different parts of the border....

The U.S. Treasury announced Wednesday that the sanctions are part of the White House’s policy to maintain pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and hold armed groups accountable for human rights violations. “The United States is taking action to promote accountability for entities and individuals that have perpetuated the suffering of the Syrian people,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said. “Today’s action makes clear that the United States will not forget the victims of human rights abuses in Syria and will use appropriate tools to target and single out those responsible, regardless of the perpetrator....

The legislation, coined as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by naysayers, seeks to ban the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms. The Republican-led Senate Education Committee gave initial approval of the controversial proposal in a 6-3 vote Tuesday despite condemnation from activist groups. Biden took to Twitter promising LGBTQ students he would stand up for them. “I want every member of the LGBTQI+ community — especially the kids who will be impacted by this hateful bill — to know that you are loved and accepted just as you are....

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, Biden was asked if he was ruling out putting military service members on the ground in Ukraine if such a scenario occurred. “That is not on the table,” he replied. “We have a moral obligation and a legal obligation to our NATO allies if they were to attack, under Article 5. That’s a sacred obligation. That obligation does not extend to…Ukraine....

Biden—who has accused Trump of leaving America’s image abroad “in tatters”—focused largely on domestic issues at the end of the convention, where he and vice presidential pick Sen. Kamala Harris accepted the nominations for the 2020 Democratic ticket. The COVID-19 pandemic, economy, racial inequality and the safety of American democracy all dominated, leaving foreign affairs to play second fiddle as they usually do in presidential elections. But Biden touched on two of America’s greatest strategic foreign policy challenges—Russia and China—vowing to stand up to their authoritarianism and protect U....

Reuters’ Steve Holland asked Biden if he is asking China to put pressure on its ally Russia amid the Ukrainian invasion. “I’m not prepared to comment on that at the moment,” Biden told Holland before taking another question. When asked by PTI News’ Lalit K. Jha about India’s potential role in the conflict, Biden said that the U.S. is speaking with Indian officials. “We are in consultations with India today,” Biden said, “but we haven’t resolved that completely....

The question is, will these victories be enough to stop a recent trend of voters of color, long a mainstay of the Democrats, defecting to the Republicans? Modern day Republicans have done nothing to actually win over Black and Latino voters, but some African Americans and Latinos are frustrated with what they view as Democrats’ broken promises and failures to address persistent disparities that plague our communities in areas like education, housing, and criminal justice....

Spearheaded by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, the plan laid out three guiding principles the department will follow as it moves to lower drug prices. These include making prices equitable for all consumers, regardless of health status or economic class, supporting health care research, and boosting competition within the sector. The administration plans to address competition issues by curbing price hikes on name-brand drugs and limiting the power of patent holders....

The announcement comes a month after progressive Democrats and Republicans criticized the Biden administration for reopening a child detainment facility which had been used during the presidency of Republican Donald Trump. The facility was also located in Carrizo Springs, Texas. In a Tuesday statement, a Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) spokesperson said that the second camp will reside within the Target Lodge Pecos North Influx Care Facility (ICF)....

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told MSNBC on Thursday that “we are not in a recession. I want to be really, really clear on that,” while White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told MSNBC the administration wasn’t planning for one. Jean-Pierre said “there are no meetings or anything happening like that in preparing for a recession because… look, what we’re seeing right now is a strong labor market....

I thought the speech was incredibly well given. It promised unity, togetherness and common ground—classic American bipartisanship and civic goodwill. Biden promised to reach out to everyone, work with everyone and be an American president, rather than a Democratic, partisan president. It strongly reminded me of President Barack Obama’s first inaugural address. And, in fact, I had the same takeaway from Biden’s speech that I did from Obama’s: if he leads the way he’s speaking—and acts as he says he will—he will split the Republican Party and have a large, American governing majority for his entire presidency....

A Civiqs presidential approval tracking poll showed that 60 percent of Nevada’s registered voters disapproved of how Biden is handling his job as of July 1, while 10 percent neither approved or disapproved. The poll showed a steep decline in approval for Biden since August, 2021 when U.S. forces pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban retook control of the country. This is in line with other polling. The Civiqs poll found that Biden’s approval rating in Nevada was 48 percent on August 16, 2021 with 45 percent disapproving....

A fossil fuel company needs two things to start drilling or fracking on our public lands: a lease for the land and a permit to drill. While the Biden administration has issued a temporary pause on new leases, it’s issuing fossil fuel permits for drilling on existing leases at the fastest clip since former Texas oilman George W. Bush was in the Oval Office. The Biden administration cannot play politics with the future of our planet....

Trump attacked Biden’s handling of the swine flu outbreak in a tweet on Thursday, saying “Sleepy Joe Biden was in charge of the H1N1 Swine Flu epidemic which killed thousands of people. The response was one of the worst on record.” Meanwhile, he said, “our response [to the coronavirus outbreak] is one of the best, with faction of border closings & a 78% Approval Rating, the highest on record. His was lowest....

But when it comes to details, it sounds as boring as fixing the plumbing. “Under the American Jobs Plan, 100% of our nation’s lead pipes and service lines will be replaced—so every child in America can turn on the faucet or fountain and drink clean water,” the president tweeted. Can you imagine Donald Trump tweeting about repairing lead pipes? Biden is excited about rebuilding America’s “infrastructure,” a word he uses constantly although it could be the dullest term in all of public policy....

Caviling about the systemic corruption of the academy is perhaps old hat. By the time William F. Buckley Jr. wrote God and Man at Yale in 1951, the metamorphosis of America’s ivory tower into something closely approximating a fifth column was well underway. But the situation has, in recent decades, worsened; it has metastasized into a cancer whose tendrils spread the latest faddish developments in intersectional, anti-American, anti-Western “woke-ism” all throughout the land....

Biden’s first actions as president included re-entering the Paris Climate Accord, canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline, halting a leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), issuing a 60-day halt on new oil and gas leases and drilling permits on federal lands and waters (which account for nearly 25% of U.S. production), directing federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel “subsidies,” imposing tougher regulations on oil and gas methane emissions (which were first promulgated under President Barack Obama and had been eased under President Donald Trump), and hiring SEC regulators to prepare climate and ESG disclosure mandates....