Today's Liberal News

“Another World Is Possible”: How Occupy Wall Street Reshaped Politics & Kicked Off New Era of Protest

On the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, we examine the legacy of the historic protests with three veterans of the movement: Nelini Stamp, now the director of strategy and partnerships at the Working Families Party; Jillian Johnson, a key organizer in Occupy Durham who now serves on the Durham City Council and is the city’s mayor pro tempore; and writer and filmmaker Astra Tayor, an organizer with the Debt Collective.

El Salvador Becomes First Nation to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender Amid Growing Authoritarianism

Thousands in El Salvador took to the streets Wednesday to protest President Nayib Bukele’s growing consolidation of power and a new law making El Salvador the world’s first country to recognize the highly volatile cryptocurrency bitcoin as legal tender. Protesters in El Salvador are also criticizing a recent court ruling that paves the way for Bukele to run for reelection in 2024.

As Wealthy Nations Debate Giving Booster Vaccine Shots, Calls Grow for Global Vaccine Equity

As the debate over booster vaccine shots heats up in the United States, global health leaders have issued an urgent call for global vaccine equity. The WHO reports vaccination rates on the African continent fall far below its target for 70% of the population of all countries to be vaccinated by mid-2022. “The science is not completely behind the need for booster shots yet,” says Zane Dangor, special adviser to the foreign minister of South Africa, who has called on the U.S.

News Roundup: Mississippi governor pushes state into pandemic disaster; pro-insurrection rally flops

In the news today: Mississippi’s Republican government has managed a milestone with a pandemic death rate that ranks it among the world’s very worst; in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Gov. Tate Reeves gave the world a good long look at the sort of governor who could pull off such a feat. Saturday’s pro-insurrection protest at the U.S. Capitol turned out to be a bust, but that doesn’t mean fascism’s supporters were quiet this weekend.

Challenges don’t end for Afghan refugees after they enter the U.S.

This story was originally published at Prism. 

By Jennifer Chowdhury

On Sept. 1, Hamed Ahmadi tweeted a picture of a few slices of stale chicken breast and melon in a styrofoam container with the caption, “Not complaining but this is what I got last night for dinner and the next meal is 12 hours later. Refugee life might be safe but never easy & favorable.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Ahmadi had worked on the ground in Afghanistan for several years.

No papers, No care: Disabled migrants seek help through lawsuit, activism

By Heidi de Marco, for Kaiser Health News

Desperation led José Luis Hernández to ride atop a speeding train through northern Mexico with hopes of reaching the United States 13 years ago. But he didn’t make it. Slipping off a step above a train coupling, he slid under the steel wheels. In the aftermath, he lost his right arm and leg, and all but one finger on his left hand.

He had left his home village in Honduras for the U.S.

Lately, I’ve Taken To

What is the role of poetry in the world? Writers have been wrestling with that question for centuries. In 1821, Percy Bysshe Shelley said that poetry helps us strengthen the muscles of our morals, and that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Fast-forward to Joe Biden’s inauguration in January: Amanda Gorman recited her poem “The Hill We Climb,” a call not just for unity but for justice.

The Liberal Attack on Government

“Let the public service be a proud and lively career,” President John F. Kennedy proclaimed in his January 1961 message to Congress. “Let every man and woman who works in any area of our national government,” he continued, “say with pride and with honor in future years: ‘I served the United States government in that hour of our nation’s need.

The Danger of Treating Everything as an Emergency

COVID-19, one of the most formidable viral foes that the world has faced in a century, has caused more than 4.5 million deaths. The United States and nearly every other country besides were correct to declare it a public-health emergency. But now federal, state, and local officials are grappling with when to end the temporary emergencies declared in early 2020, in many cases with the expectation that they’d last just weeks. The U.S.

Why Biden Bet It All on Mandates

When President Joe Biden rolled out his plan requiring vaccinations on a mass scale, he sounded a bit like a gambler at a point of desperation. Biden’s presidency, and much of his legacy, hinges on defeating the prolonged pandemic. During a dismal summer of rising infections and deaths due to vaccine holdouts and the Delta variant, the pandemic seemed to have defeated him. Under the new rules, Biden hopes to pressure about 80 million more Americans to get their shots.