Here are today's featured stories, posted by DU members and curated by the Administrators. More news items can be found in our Latest Breaking News forum, and for all the most up-to-the-minute stories that are being talked about by DU members, visit the Latest Discussions page.
May 20, 2026
'So Much Hard Work Erased': Nate Silver Vents Disney Told Him to 'Get Lost' Before Deleting FiveThirtyEight's Archive
May 19th, 2026, 4:36 pm Nate Silver eulogized his old website FiveThirtyEight in a lengthy blog post on Tuesday and lamented there was “so much hard work erased” when Disney recently decided to wipe the political data outlet’s entire archive. How much hard work? Silver calculated 200,000 hours, or about 23 years of combined work. “During the Disney era, which lasted about 10 years, FiveThirtyEight published about 20 stories a week. Let’s say that each story took about 20 hours to produce be ...
Go to discussionSenate Republicans angry and alarmed over Trump's Paxton endorsement
05/19/2026 06:29 PM EDT President Donald Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate primary set off panic among Republicans who worry that keeping the seat will now be a more expensive and potentially futile endeavor. By endorsing Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, Trump rejected the pleas of GOP leaders in Congress who for months had pushed Trump to back a proven winner in the Lone Star State. Now with Trump in his corner, Paxton is well situated to win the primary runoff n ...
Go to discussionIran threatens war 'beyond the region' if US attacks
May 20 (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Wednesday to spread war beyond the Middle East if the United States attacks again, after President Donald Trump said he had come within an hour of restarting the military campaign. Six weeks since Trump paused Operation Epic Fury for a ceasefire, talks to end the war have largely stalled. Iran submitted a new offer to the United States this week, but its public accounts of it repeat terms previously rejected by Trump, including demands for co ...
Go to discussionBlanche says he won't recommend pardoning Maxwell
Posted May 19, 2026 at 5:34pm Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers Tuesday he would not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a federal prison sentence for her role in a sex trafficking scheme involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The head of the Justice Department made the remark during a budget hearing on Capitol Hill under questioning from Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations S ...
Go to discussionTrump Shrugs Off Soaring Gas Prices As 'Peanuts' Amid Iran War
May 19, 2026, 08:01 PM EDT | Updated 10 hours ago Donald Trump did little to dissuade people from the idea that he is out of touch with the concerns of everyday Americans during a Tuesday press conference. After a reporter asked the president whether he had any plans or initiatives to help stem the high gas prices caused by the current war with Iran, Trump said “there may be” before going off on a tangent about how great things had been before America had to “take a little journey” and “do so ...
Go to discussion