Today's Liberal News

Listen: The Consequences of Vaccine Nationalism

While wealthier countries reopen, India and the rest of the world face a terrifying new peak in the pandemic. How did it come to this? What can be done? And with new variants and limited supplies, how does the global vaccine strategy need to change to prevent more coronavirus spikes?Staff writer Yasmeen Serhan joins James Hamblin and Maeve Higgins on the podcast Social Distance to explain.

The Fleeting Promise of a Peaceful Ethiopia

The morning after the 2020 presidential election, as ballots were still being counted in several battleground states and then-President Donald Trump drummed up dangerous conspiracy theories about the impending results, many Ethiopians in the U.S. woke up to distressing political news from back home, too. The Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, had announced a military offensive in Tigray, the northernmost region of the East African country.

Post-vaccination Inertia Is Real

Updated at 4:39 p.m. ET on April 29, 2021.On my kitchen wall hangs a very small and very adorable cat calendar, with May 23 circled in Sharpie. It’s the day my Pfizer vaccine will, at long last, blossom into “full vaccination,” as sanctioned by the CDC. I’ll be able to safely venture outdoors unmasked and skip post-exposure quarantines.

How Lifting Intellectual Property Restrictions Could Help World Vaccinate 60% of Population by 2022

As new coronavirus cases surge across India, overwhelming hospitals and crematories, calls are growing louder for wealthy countries to stop hoarding excess supply of COVID-19 vaccines and to loosen intellectual property restrictions preventing more countries from making their own vaccines. We speak with economist Jayati Ghosh and Congressmember Ro Khanna of California.

New COVID-19 Variant, Linked to India’s Record Wave of Infections & Deaths, Now Seen in 19 Countries

As India faces 1 million new COVID-19 infections every three days, we look at how more infectious variants have been linked to a spread in cases. The so-called India variant has now been detected in at least 19 countries. “This virus behaves differently now, in that it’s much more infectious,” says Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, an infectious disease physician at the Mayo Clinic.

The Modi Surge: COVID-19 Cases Overwhelm India’s Healthcare System as Gov’t Censors Critics

India has topped 18.3 million COVID-19 cases, after adding 1 million cases in just the past three days amid shortages in vital supplies and overwhelmed hospitals across the country. Makeshift mass cremation facilities have been set up in parks and parking lots, with rows of bodies being burned on funeral pyres. With hospitals overflowing, some patients have been turned away and left to deal with their infections on their own.

What a Crackdown Looks Like From Jail

Earlier this month, I stood in line alongside an aide to Tam Tak-chi, both of us readying to meet with the imprisoned political activist at the Hong Kong prison complex where he is being held. As Tam’s assistant waited her turn for supplies she brought for Tam to be inspected, a woman approached from the nearby waiting area and the two exchanged excited hellos before hugging and chatting briefly.

The Trump Policy That Biden Is Extending

President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress announced a great many breaks with the recent past. But in one very important way, Biden’s approach represents a depressing continuity with the defeated Trump administration: the turn from free trade to Buy American.
All the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principle: “Buy American.

News Roundup: Biden addresses Congress; Rudy gets raided; India in pandemic crisis

In the news tonight: President Joe Biden delivers his first speech to a joint session of Congress. Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s office is raided by federal investigators looking for more information on the scope of his Ukrainian dealings. India’s healthcare systems are now in full pandemic crisis—a crisis not likely to stop at the nation’s borders.

President Biden addresses joint session of Congress

President Joe Biden is addressing a joint session of Congress—the traditional replacement for a State of the Union address in a president’s first year. This year, of course, the format of the speech is also shaped by COVID-19. There will be a limited audience.

Biden has serious legislative priorities to advocate for, including the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, which he unveiled Wednesday morning, along with the American Jobs Plan and immigration reform.