Today's Liberal News

When ‘the Aliens Are Us’

For astronomers, a tiny blip in data can signal the existence of an entire world. It happens when a planet far beyond our solar system passes in front of its own star. The planet blocks a tiny bit of light, making the shining star appear fainter to us. Scientists have used these moments to discover thousands of exoplanets in the Milky Way—icy planets and lava planets, hot Jupiters and miniature Neptunes, planets with a thick atmosphere and planets with no atmosphere at all.

The Pride Flag Has a Representation Problem

Since its first flight at 1978’s Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco, the rainbow flag has evolved multiple times. That earliest iteration included pink and turquoise stripes, symbolizing sex and art, respectively—parts of queer life that the designers thought were worth fighting for. Later that year, though, the flag lost its pink stripe because of fabric unavailability at the local manufacturer, and turquoise fell off the year after for the same reason.

The Only Way We’ll Know When We Need COVID-19 Boosters

Midway through America’s first mass-immunization campaign against the coronavirus, experts are already girding themselves for the next. The speedy rollout of wildly effective shots in countries such as the United States, where more than half the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, has shown remarkable progress—finally, slowly, steadily beating the coronavirus back.

Delta Variant Linked to COVID Surges Amid Slow U.S. Vaccination Rates as Global Inequity Persists

The White House says it will miss its goal of getting 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4. Vaccinations are available for anyone age 12 and up in the U.S., but just 45% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, and only 16 states have fully vaccinated more than half of their populations. Epidemiologist Dr. Ali Khan says despite more than 150 million people in the U.S.

A Fight for Democracy: GOP Blocks Voting Bill as Democrats Renew Push to Reform Filibuster

As Senate Republicans use the filibuster to block debate on the most sweeping voting rights bill considered by Congress in decades, we look at what is in the bill and the next steps forward. Elizabeth Hira, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program, describes the For the People Act as “a massive democracy reform package” that seeks to address systemic flaws in U.S. elections.

Ex-Cop Eric Adams Takes Lead in NYC Mayoral Race in City’s First Election with Ranked-Choice Voting

We look at the early results from New York’s highly anticipated primary election Tuesday. In the heated mayoral race, Brooklyn borough president and former New York police officer Eric Adams is leading, but it will likely take several weeks to announce a winner with the new ranked-choice voting system. Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley is currently in second place, followed closely by former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia.

The High Cost of Divorce

Sara met her future husband when she was 18. He struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, but Sara thought marriage would change him for the better. It didn’t. Sara gave birth to two kids before the age of 25, and she says her husband grew controlling and abusive. A few weeks ago, he got drunk and punched her in the face repeatedly, she says, and she realized they had to divorce.

Joe Manchin Was Never a Mystery

The failure of the For the People Act in the Senate yesterday evening didn’t provide much drama. All 50 Democrats backed the voting-rights bill, but with no Republican support, they didn’t have enough votes to break a filibuster. That Democrats didn’t have the votes was clear from the start of the Congress.But journalism requires drama, which means that over the past few months Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has been the subject of extensive coverage.

U.S. falls short of vaccine goals, South America in trouble, COVID patients face ‘black fungus’

America is going to come this close to hitting President Biden’s goal of having 70% of the nation vaccinated by July 4. But as that date crowds closer, it seems like we’re just going to miss.

Biden originally set a goal of delivering 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office — a goal that was far from certain, since he came into a system where deliveries of vaccine were uncertain and chaotic.

Sen. Warnock gives speech of our democracy’s life on Senate floor

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate was set to vote on whether or not to debate the For the People Act. It’s a piece of voting rights legislation that would help to protect our constitutional right to vote will be filibustered by the minority Republican Party. They will do this at a time when conservative officials around the country have been working diligently to suppress the votes of millions of Americans.

Internal emails continue to confirm that ICE knowingly helped spread COVID-19 abroad

Internal documents obtained by a government watchdog continue to confirm that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was knowingly worsening the novel coronavirus pandemic. It wasn’t just that the agency refused to release larger numbers of immigrants and worsened this public health crisis here at home. The agency was also knowingly deporting sick immigrants, helping spread and worsen the pandemic abroad.

The Democrats’ Dead End on Voting Rights

Democrats have cast in dire terms their push to protect and expand voting rights before the next national elections. “Failure is not an option,” Senate Majority Chuck Schumer has repeatedly declared, making the oft-broken vow that leaders in both parties assign to their tippy-top priorities. This afternoon, Schumer brought up his party’s broad election-reform bill for an initial procedural vote, and it failed.