Joe And Jill Biden To Visit Texas In Aftermath Of Elementary School Shooting
The White House said the president and first lady will visit the site of the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on May 29.
Today's Liberal News
The Review: Top Gun
Top Gun: Maverick is out soon! But can any movie with fast planes, Tom Cruise, and beach volleyball truly compare to the classic fighter-pilot movie about, as writer Shirley Li puts it, “cute boys calling each other cute names”? And do audiences have an appetite anymore for what Megan Garber called an “infomercial for America”? Find out with Shirley, Megan, and David Sims, and explore the moral (but fictional) simplicity of an earlier era: the Cold War ’80s.
The Amber Heard–Johnny Depp Trial Is Not a Joke
The first time it happened, she said, she thought it was a joke. On the stand in her defamation trial a few weeks ago, the actor Amber Heard shared her account of the first time her now-ex-husband, Johnny Depp, allegedly hit her. She’d asked him about one of his tattoos: the one on his bicep (the one he’d famously had edited) that to her looked like a muddle of black ink. The tattoo spelled out wino, she said he told her.
How to Fix Twitter—And All of Social Media
Those debating the future of Twitter and other social-media platforms have largely fallen into two opposing camps. One supports individuals’ absolute freedom of speech; the other holds that speech must be modulated through content moderation, and by tweaking the ways in which information spreads. It sounds like an old-fashioned confrontation between the idealists and the realists, but in this case both sides are peddling an equally dismal vision.
CMS turning attention to hospitals with Covid outbreaks
The nation’s hospital regulator is probing hospitals where patients were likely infected with Covid after a record spike in transmission this year.
Patrick Cockburn Warns the West’s “Triumphalism” in Ukraine Could Prolong Conflict Indefinitely
As fighting continues in Ukraine, we speak with journalist Patrick Cockburn, who says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is peddling a “vague triumphalism” which is “obscuring just how dangerous and how bad the situation has become.” His recent CounterPunch piece is headlined “London and Washington are Being Propelled by Hubris — Just as Putin was.
After the Uvalde Massacre in South Texas, Will Migrants with Key Info Be Protected from Deportation?
The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday it would try to temporarily pause “immigration enforcement activities” in the town of Uvalde, Texas, so families could freely seek assistance and reunite with their loved ones following Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary, which left 19 students and two teachers dead. The school’s population is nearly 90% Latinx, and Uvalde is part of a heavily militarized border zone in South Texas.
“Enough Was Enough”: How Australia Reformed Its Gun Laws & Ended Mass Shootings After 1996 Massacre
After the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting, Australia passed sweeping new gun control measures that largely ended mass shootings in the country. We speak with Rebecca Peters, an international arms control advocate who led the campaign to reform Australia’s gun laws after the massacre. She recalls how in just 10 days the prime minister brokered a deal with local officials to pass higher standards around gun safety that would prevent any mass shootings for the next 20 years.
“A Uniquely American Problem”: Pressure Grows for Gun Control After School Massacre in Texas
As people mourn Tuesday’s mass shooting that left dead 19 students and two teachers, Republicans who still oppose any new gun control measures face growing outrage. “This is a uniquely American problem, and it’s happening with such frequency and such devastation, it’s almost hard to wrap your mind around,” says Robin Lloyd, managing director of the gun violence prevention group Giffords.
Pfizer, BioNTech report 80 percent efficacy of Covid-19 vaccine for youngest children
The companies plan to finish submitting data to the Food and Drug Administration this week.
State Democrats, abortion-rights activists ‘incredibly frustrated’ with federal inaction
Democratic inaction at the federal level could complicate the party’s efforts to run this fall as champions of reproductive rights.
Health official on monkeypox: ‘I feel like this is a virus we understand’
Ashish Jha said he doesn’t expect monkeypox will become a particularly big threat.
POLITICO-Harvard poll: Majority of Americans support continued migrant expulsions under Title 42
The findings come as a Louisiana judge issued a preliminary injunction on Friday blocking the administration from ending the order on Monday.
U.S. economy is in a ‘period of transition,’ White House economic adviser says
Despite high inflation, the U.S. is “moving from the strongest economic recovery in modern history to what can be a period of more stable and resilient growth,” Brian Deese said.
U.S. inflation hit 8.3% last month but slows from 40-year high
On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.3% from March to April, a still-elevated rate but the smallest increase in eight months.
Fed set to launch fresh assault on inflation in new era for economy
Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue.
Ted Cruz Flayed Over Ludicrous Idea For Preventing School Shootings
According to the Republican senator, it’s the number of doors, not guns, that schools should be worried about.
News Roundup: Texas death toll increases; gun violence apologists scurry to dodge blame
The death toll in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting now stands at 19 elementary school children and two teachers, with at least 17 others injured. The state’s Republican leaders immediately launched into defenses that tried to push blame onto everything other than their own efforts to reduce even the flimsiest hurdles standing between Texas mass murderers and weapons of war. The National Rifle Association is still planning to hold its convention in Houston this weekend.
Ukraine update: Russia is blockading Ukraine, but it’s blackmailing the world
On the ground, Ukraine’s military has been remarkably effective at halting Russian advances and extracting a price for every inch of ground surrendered. Oryx currently has Russia’s verified losses at over 4,000 pieces of equipment, including 715 tanks. By comparison, Ukraine’s documented losses are at just over 1,000 pieces of equipment and 177 tanks. Russia has been losing equipment at a rate that’s 4 times that of Ukraine. It still is.
Top Texas Catholic Endorses New Gun Regulations After Uvalde Massacre
“We’re supposed to promote life, the life of people,” Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said.
CNN Host Asks GOP Rep. Why Texas Can Act Fast To Protect Embryos But Not Children
“Why can’t you protect living 10-year-olds?” Alisyn Camerota pressed state Rep. James White.
Georgia Republicans fantasize about ‘unity rally’ after Trump ravaged their primaries
Georgia Republicans avoided the worst-case scenario Tuesday in their marquee primaries for governor and Senate, avoiding runoffs in both critical contests.
Sitting GOP Gov. Brian Kemp trounced Trump-endorsed former Sen. David Perdue, winning nearly three-quarters of primary voters.
Meanwhile, Trump-endorsed former Georgia football star Herschel Walker ran away with the Senate primary, winning some 68% of the vote. His nearest challenger, Gary Black, finished at just over 13%.
Biden gives up on Congress when it comes to police reform and plans to sign executive order instead
President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday, the two-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, that he would sign an executive order promising to deliver the “most significant police reform in decades.” The president promised that the order would create a national database of police misconduct, strengthen pattern or practice investigations, and ban chokeholds for federal agencies.
Child Gun Deaths In Texas Doubled Under Greg Abbott. Then Came Uvalde.
While mass shootings multiplied, the Texas governor liberalized firearm access.
Alex Jones waves a false flag on Uvalde shooting, even as judge clears way for Sandy Hook damages
If all Alex Jones ever did was rant about gay frogs and weather machines and gay weather machines disrupting all the righteous hurricanes Yahweh sends to places like South Beach, Miami, he’d be (at worst) a noxious sideshow.
The Most Extreme Abortion Ban In The Country Was Just Signed Into Law In Oklahoma
Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) just signed a bill that bans abortion at fertilization and uses the same enforcement mechanism as Texas’ six-week ban.
China’s fragility feeds the doom-mongers in Davos
Fêted at the World Economic Forum in 2017, Xi Jinping is now accused of torpedoing the global economy with his disastrous Zero Covid strategy.
RIP Davos Man, long live globalization
Open markets aren’t what they used to be. A more complicated, more regional economic system is reshaping the global order.
Mass Shootings, Young Men, and What Can Be Done
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
We Need to Learn to Live With Guns
The most important thing you need to know about yesterday’s tragic school shooting in Texas is that absolutely no laws are going to change as a result of it.In the 14 years since the Supreme Court found an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment in the landmark case of D.C. v. Heller, the federal judiciary has only grown more conservative. The courts will likely bar any meaningful restrictions on the possession of firearms for at least another generation.