Today's Liberal News

“Police State Without the State”: Palestinian Authority Faces Protests over Critic’s Death in Custody

We look at growing opposition to the Palestinian Authority after the killing of a prominent activist, Nizar Banat, a vocal critic of the ruling body who died in PA custody after security forces violently arrested him at his home. Banat’s killing has sparked protests calling for President Mahmoud Abbas to step down. “The Palestinian Authority now is acting like a police state without the state,” says Palestinian writer Mariam Barghouti.

Haiti in Chaos After President’s Assassination as Activists in U.S. Urge Biden to Stop Deportations

The interim prime minister of Haiti has declared a state of siege and imposed martial law following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, who died in an armed attack on his home. The first lady of Haiti was injured in the attack and airlifted to a hospital in Miami, where she is reportedly in stable but critical condition. Haitian authorities say police have killed four suspects and detained two others, but the individuals have not been identified.

Haiti and the Trump Illusion

Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET on July 8, 2021.Not in more than 100 years had a Haitian president died by violence. That previous assassination was of a repressive leader who was beaten lifeless by rebels in 1915, a murder that preceded and substantially prompted an American invasion and occupation of Haiti that ultimately lasted until 1934.The murder of President Jovenel Moïse yesterday seems unlikely to yield such dire results.

The Court’s Voting-Rights Decision Was Worse Than People Think

The Voting Rights Act regime as we knew it is gone, and it’s not coming back.Once thought of as the crown jewel of the Second Reconstruction, the VRA has lost its luster. For the past decade or so, the Supreme Court has systematically reduced the scope and reach of the law. The Court’s decision last week in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee is only the latest case, and certainly will not be the last, to interpret the act in a manner that will sideline it—permanently.

News roundup: Hitler, Hitler, obstruction, hate, and terrorist-loving Republicans

In the news today: Shocking absolutely no one, Donald Trump reportedly had high praise for Adolf Hitler. And speaking of Hitler, Majorie Taylor-Greene compares COVID-19 prevention to the Holocaust. Again. Republicans continue to admit that their only goal on infrastructure is to delay and destroy any chance of a deal. Ohio’s Republican governor says it’ll be easy for LGBTQ people to get other health coverage after he screws them over in his budget.

Mary Trump: Ivanka ‘much less likely to stay loyal than Allen Weisselberg’

In a recent episode of The New Abnormal podcast, Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece and the author of Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, said Princess Ivanka, the rotten apple of Donald Trump’s sallow, bloodshot, rheumy eye, is far more likely to flip on The Donald than Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg, who is up to his cheesy mustache in legal troubles, thanks to a few fringe benefits gobs of extra pay he received tax-fre

The uncomfortable questions at the intersection of medicine and poverty

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed long-known inequalities in the United States health care system, leading to low-income communities being disproportionately impacted. Even before the pandemic, these inequalities were part of why life expectancy for some neighborhoods in Baltimore is worse than in North Korea, Syria, and Yemen.

South Carolina restaurant owner fixes cars in free time to give to rural residents in need

“Some folks don’t even believe it. They’re like ‘No, that’s not my car,” Eliot Middleton told CBS News a couple of weeks ago. Middleton, a South Carolina restaurant owner and skilled mechanic, has been doing something extraordinary over the past year: on his time off from his Middleton & Maker Village BBQ in Awendaw, South Carolina, he has been fixing up junked cars in his backyard.

Video shows Texas congressman saying ‘chaos and inability to get stuff done’ is best GOP strategy

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is something of a racist, Steve King type of Republican. His only “policy” ideas seem to be using taxpayer money to fight against the concept of immigration. Roy is the kind of person who, just days before the Jan. 6 insurrection, made some political theater by calling out fellow GOP candidates for fascistic hypocrisy, only to turn around and vote against setting up a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan.

Space Billionaires, Please Read the Room

Dear billionaires, no one cares whom you beat to space.After Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, announced that he would join the first crewed flight by his rocket company, Blue Origin, later this month, Richard Branson just couldn’t let him earn the title of first billionaire in space. So now Branson, merely the world’s 589th richest person, is joining the crew of his next Virgin Galactic flight on Sunday, nine days before Bezos goes vertical.