This section aims to highlight big stories of the day in a daily snapshot, capturing a few news cycles at a time through curated Tweets (for as long as Tweets are still a thing, I suppose…)
For a more detailed narrative archive, see Month-by-Month.
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For up-to-date baseball standings click here
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31 May:
Update: The negotiated debt ceiling bill easily passed the House on Wednesday night and, if approved by the Senate, will suspend the national debt limit until January 2025. The final tally was 314-117, with 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats voting “no”. In the end, more Democrats than Republicans voted “yes”, saving GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Bill.
Earlier: The House of Representatives is set to vote Wednesday on a Bill that would settle the nation’s debt limit until Jan 1, 2025. But following the deal between the GOP and the White House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy will inevitably be more vulnerable to performative attacks from his right.
Donald Trump heads to Iowa today, after his rival for the GOP nomination Ron DeSantis’s visit to the party’s first primary state appeared to resonate with some Republicans looking for an alternative to the former President. But DeSantis remains well behind in polling.
And the traveling circus looks set to expand still further next week – a move that can only work to the front-runner’s advantage.
But it’s probably as well for Trump that his lead seems – for now – so solid. The former President may have other things to worry about.
Meanwhile, for whatever it’s worth…
And there’s the small measure of more expert warnings of human extinction as a result of AI, yet somehow that story takes up the same bandwidth among news consumers as the previous one…
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30 May:
Drone strikes hit inside Moscow, apparently three miles from Putin’s home, in what’s thought to be the first attack on a residential area of the Russian capital since the war began. It comes after a series of Russian missile bombardments of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
The debt ceiling agreement is tonight one step closer to a legislative reality; but it’s not a done deal just yet. And even if it gets done, the underlying problem remains.
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29 May:
Amid Memorial Day observances, the prospects for a proposed debt ceiling deal continue to be analysed. But the picture can change this coming week as the respective sides head towards making the agreement a legislative reality.
Overseas, Turkish president Erdogan was, as expected, returned to power in Sunday’s run-off election, while there are some worrying, confused noises surrounding Belarus.
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27 May:
The White House and GOP appear to have reached a deal on the debt ceiling. Now the ball is firmly in House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s court to sell it to his whackjob wing. They won’t go quietly. No doubt some on the Democratic side will also welcome the chance to go on TV and say that giving up *anything* was too much, but Janet Yellen’s slightly extended deadline should smooth the legislative path away from the edge of an economic cliff.
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26 May:
As Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group, begins his 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy – the longest term of any defendant so far for a role in the Jan 6 2021 insurrection – new GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis hinted at possible pardons.
Other prominent Oath Keepers were also sentenced to lengthy terms today.
Perhaps more worrying than the two Republican front-runners arm-wrestling to out-do each other in undermining the rule of law; the deep influence and motivation of such extreme groups shows little sign of going away.
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25 May:
Likely surprising no-one, Ron DeSantis’s glitch-ridden entry to the GOP presidential field on Twitter didn’t go well. It remains to be seen whether it will matter.
Whether DeSantis might be doomed before he even starts is a fair discussion to have. But for a campaign that will revolve around a culture war, the GOP mood in some early primary states will certainly keep those issues – both the symbolic and the very real – on the front burner. But again, it remains to be seen if DeSantis will still be a factor by the time South Carolina votes on Feb 20th.
It perhaps came as some relief to the Florida Governor’s campaign team that at the same time as their “launch” news was breaking of the passing of a musical legend and cultural icon.
Meanwhile, the debt limit mess drags on…
Finally…
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Take me to the May month-by-month
Take me to the April Month-by-Month
Take me to the March Month-by-Month
Take me to the February Month-by-Month
Take me to the January Month-by-Month
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States of Play 