Today's Liberal News

All the Sad, Lonely Pandemic Puppies

Bowen the goldendoodle is never home alone. When he first came home as a puppy, last June, his parents were working remotely because of the pandemic. If they try to leave their Boston apartment for even a few minutes now, he makes his unhappiness audible. “He’s whining and barking, and we just don’t want to upset the neighbors,” Jon Canario told me. So they don’t. Wherever they go, he goes. Wherever he can’t go, they don’t go.

Dr. Monica Gandhi on the Origins of COVID-19, Vaccine Equity, the Debate over Masks & More

President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of COVID-19 as new questions are being raised over whether an accidental leak from a Chinese virology lab is to blame for the pandemic. The Wall Street Journal reports three employees of the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill with COVID-like symptoms in the autumn of 2019 and were hospitalized in November of that year, before the first recorded case of COVID-19.

No Tokyo Olympics: As COVID Spikes in Japan, Calls Grow to Cancel Games. IOC Refuses. Who Profits?

Pressure is growing on organizers to cancel the Tokyo Olympics as Japan struggles to contain a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases. The games, which were delayed by a year due to the pandemic, are scheduled to begin July 23 even though less than 3% of the Japanese population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, one of the lowest rates in the developed world. Jules Boykoff, author and former Olympic athlete who played for the U.S.

News Roundup: Grand jury seated in Trump criminal probe; patience with Senate GOP wearing thin

In the news today: A newly seated grand jury begins to hear evidence of criminal behavior inside the Trump Organization. Patience for Republican “negotiations” over infrastructure spending is wearing thin. As Senate Republicans continue efforts to kill a proposed independent probe of the Jan. 6 insurrection, a fallen officer’s mother is asking to meet with the Republicans trying to block the probe from going forward.

Fox News guest blames mass shootings on mass vaccinations, because sure, why not?

So there was another mass shooting in America Wednesday morning, and naturally Fox News and its guests need to find some reason (other than a proliferation of guns ‘n assholes) for the rise of gun violence in this country. Instead of stopping to ask why these events only seem to happen with any regularity in the United States, they have to invent weird theories—and they just invented one of the weirdest.

But first of all, the shooting.

Deferred no more: The struggle for future of undocumented students

This story was originally published at Prism. 

By Brenton Weyi

What happens to a dream deferred? This famous question from Langston Hughes has been the lived reality for undocumented youth nationwide who have received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (or DACA), also known as DREAMers.

But two DACAmented leaders have been working to level the educational playing field for today’s youth: Alejandro Fuentes and Tania Chairez.

Newsmax host uses Pride Month cereal as route to rant about pronouns and ‘woke’ companies

In light of the anti-trans bills state lawmakers are pushing across the country, a lot of queerphobia pales in comparison and isn’t worth the air time. There’s something to be said, too, for simply choosing not to amplify the harm and hate speech uttered by some on the right. One example: On Tuesday night, Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield launched into a queerphobic rant about the LGBTQ community and—get this—cereal, as reported by the New Civil Rights Movement.