Today's Liberal News

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.

The Other Afghan Women: Rural Areas Hope Taliban Rule Will End Decades of U.S. & Warlord Violence

Violence in Afghanistan’s countryside has reportedly dropped after the Taliban takeover and the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but the country continues to face an ongoing humanitarian and economic crisis, with millions of children at risk of starvation. Joining us from Kabul, New Yorker reporter Anand Gopal says he was shocked by the “sheer level of violence” Afghan women outside the cities have experienced in the last two decades of war.

The Atlantic Devotes Chapter 3 of ‘Inheritance’ Project to ‘What the Body Holds’

Today The Atlantic is publishing a collection of stories, poetry, and photography that serves as a recognition, a celebration, and a reclamation of the Black body. “What the Body Holds” is the third chapter of “Inheritance,” The Atlantic’s ongoing reporting project to fill the blank pages of Black history: to piece together, through reporting and data, the crucial events and conversations that have been intentionally left out of America’s story.

Joe Biden’s New World Order

A new world is beginning to take shape, even if it remains disguised in the clothes of the old.The United States, Britain, and Australia have announced what is in effect a new “Anglo” military alliance. The basics are these: In 2016, Australia struck a deal with France to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines, rejecting an Anglo-American alternative for nuclear-powered vessels.

News Roundup: Republicans threaten debt standoff; Mike Pence is no hero; Texas vs. tech companies

In the news today: The nation slides towards another self-inflicted crisis as Republicans once again vow to block a debt ceiling boost. The reason? So their party can campaign against Democrats for keeping America’s bills paid. Yet another book of the Trump era explores the depth of the Trump team’s depravity, including the effort Mike Pence went to to try to meet Trump’s demand that the United States presidential election be nullified so that Trump could maintain power.

Northern Idaho hospitals allowed to save beds and ventilators for those ‘most likely to survive’

As hospital workers desperately try to save lives with limited resources and dwindling available beds during the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials Idaho activated a “crisis standards of care” for northern hospitals last week that would in rare cases allow hospitals to save beds and ventilators “for those who are most likely to survive,” The Associated Press reported of the guidelines dated last year.

Inspiration4 is another space tourism venture, but it’s not like the ones we’ve seen before

In the last two months, we’ve watched two billionaires fly their personal rockets on suborbital flights that they celebrated with lots of self-aggrandizement. On Wednesday evening, another billionaire will launch, not on his personal rocket, but on one he’s renting from billionaire No. 4 for another tourist flight. Which, on the face of it, seems like more of the same.

Advocates call for hate crime charges after white woman calls ‘visibly Muslim woman’ a ‘terrorist’

I’m sure we’ve all heard the horror stories about Spirit Airlines, which are primarily known for their cheap but often unpleasant flights. In this case, though, the story isn’t about the inconveniences of flying with Spirit; it deals with the issues of flying while Muslim.

While the phrase is often associated with security and service staff mistreating Muslim travelers, a Muslim woman was harassed and mistreated by another traveler in this incident.

The Space Tourists Are in Control Now

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—Before liftoff, the moon was the brightest object in the sky, followed by the tiny, shining pinpricks of Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Then the rocket rose with a roar, a white-hot needle casting the dark evening in a soft gold. A crew of four sat atop it, strapped inside a small capsule. And none of them—not one—were professional astronauts.The passengers who launched today are SpaceX’s first-ever private crew.

Anti-vaxx Chronicles: A terrifying blow-by-blow recap of a COVID illness

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Facebook is a menace. COVID-19 is a menace. Conservatism is a cesspool. Together, those three ingredients have created a toxic stew of malevolent death and devastation. We can talk about all those things in the abstract, look at the numbers and statistics, and catch the occasional whiff of seditionist right-wing rhetoric.

The California Recall’s Warning for Democracy

Governor Gavin Newsom of California defeated yesterday’s recall election by a large enough margin to squash earlier Republican threats to challenge the results no matter the outcome. But the proliferation of those allegations of voter fraud before the election, including ungrounded claims from former President Donald Trump that the contest was “rigged,” points toward an ominous future in which more GOP candidates challenge the results of any election that they do not win.