Today's Liberal News

The Permanent Colony

Tam Tak-chi has spent much of the past two decades talking. First as a popular radio host, then as a prodemocracy activist, Tam had opinions, many of them, and cared little about holding them back. So it was not entirely surprising—perhaps even expected in Hong Kong’s rapidly atrophying space for dissent—that his words eventually drew the ire of authorities. Early one September morning last year, Tam was arrested at his home.

West Virginia’s oldest river becomes America’s newest national park

Despite some of the beautiful landscapes and great outdoors West Virginia is known for, the state wasn’t home to a national park until last year. Last December, Congress passed a bill that declared the opening of America’s 63rd national park in West Virginia. The move redesignated West Virginia’s New River Gorge from a national river to a federally protected tourist destination: New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

South Dakota Republican is back with yet another anti-trans bill, this time about birth certificates

If you’ve heard of Republican lawmaker Rep. Fred Deutsch, a legislator who represents South Dakota’s Florence district, it’s likely because of his considerable history of pushing anti-trans legislations. As Daily Kos has covered in the past, Deutsch has pushed a bill that would have punished physicians for providing gender-affirming treatments to transgender and nonbinary youth.

The Literary Origins of Netflix’s Latest Smash Hit

Before Arsène Lupin was the inspiration for an out-of-nowhere Netflix smash hit, projected to be watched by 70 million subscribers, the character was a French literary legend, a gentleman thief with the moral code of Robin Hood, the wits of Sherlock Holmes, and the anti-aristocratic instincts of Robespierre.

The Dogs Trained to Sniff Out COVID-19

Promising early results from several studies have encouraged researchers around the world to develop and expand canine programs that may screen people for COVID-19 infection at places like airports, hospitals, or sports venues. While these early experiments appear to demonstrate high levels of accuracy by the sniffer dogs, researchers also caution that peer-review processes and larger-scale studies are still needed.

How Anthony Fauci Survived Donald Trump

You couldn’t have blamed Anthony Fauci if at any point over the past year he’d told Donald Trump he’d had enough, thank you, and quit. Everyone has a breaking point. There was the time the former president called him “a disaster” on a call with Trump-campaign staff. Or the day a White House official gave reporters an oppo-research-style memo claiming that Fauci had been “wrong on things” related to COVID-19.

The Myth That Gets Men Out of Doing Chores

“Birds at Home,” 2006 (Julie Blackmon)When you think of messiness, you might think of the unsavory ways it manifests: sweaty socks left on the floor, food-encrusted dishes piled in the sink, crumbs on the counter. Messes themselves are easy to identify, but the patterns of behavior that produce them are a bit more nuanced. Really, messiness has two ingredients: making messes, and then not cleaning them up.

MIA: Where Have All the Vaccines Gone? CDC Says Only Half of Shots Feds Sent to States Were Used

January has become the deadliest month of the pandemic in the United States, with at least 80,000 deaths from COVID-19 so far, and public health experts worry new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus could make things worse. President Joe Biden has announced plans to acquire another 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, aiming to vaccinate most people in the U.S. by summer, but vaccine distribution continues to be a problem.

“A Step Forward”: Black Lives Matter Protests Forced Biden to Push Racial Equity, But More Is Needed

President Joe Biden was elected with massive support from people of color, and in his second week in office he issued four executive orders to advance what the White House calls his “racial equity” agenda. The orders aim to strengthen anti-discrimination policies in housing, end Justice Department contracts with private prison companies, reaffirm sovereignty of Native American tribes and combat xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.