Today's Liberal News

Far-right ‘Patriots’ beclown themselves on the Fourth of July with two hoax rallies

America’s far-right “Patriots” explored new ways to snooker themselves this holiday weekend in two rallies, both ostensibly aimed at attacking the “radical left,” on opposite sides of the country.

In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, hundreds of militiamen swarmed to the Civil War historical site to defend it against a supposed “antifa” protest that was in fact entirely a hoax and so never materialized.

COVID-19 gives ICE a new layer of protection from accountability and transparency

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has refused to release children and parents from crowded, dangerous detention facilities, even as COVID-19 was discovered at one of the jails. And it’s happening without meaningful oversight, thanks to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General deciding to cut off most in-person inspections of the facilities.

The Atlantic Daily: Police Abolition Is an Opportunity

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.(HULTON ARCHIVE / GETTY / KATIE MARTIN / THE ATLANTIC)June’s protests saw a series of victories for advocates of police reform. But the national conversation is far from over, and calls for further overhaul continue.

The Backlash Against PPP Is Why the U.S. Can’t Have Nice Things

This story was updated on July 7 at 10:17 p.m.The pandemic is out of control, the economy is in the toilet, and the weather is unpleasant, but at least the schadenfreude is excellent this week.Yesterday the Small Business Administration released a list of loan recipients under the Paycheck Protection Program, part of the hastily passed CARES Act stimulus. The list is full of targets ripe for naming and shaming.

Fashion’s Racism and Classism Are Finally Out of Style

Luxury fashion’s love of hierarchies has never been subtle. Telling people what they should look like often also requires telling them what’s unacceptable: To spend money on feeling better, people first need to feel bad. For decades, the industry tolerated nearly no dark skin, fat bodies, wrinkles, or outward indications that a person wasn’t summoned from the recesses of a French executive’s brain and manifested directly onto the banquette at a SoHo restaurant.

Pop Smoke Made the Soundtrack of a Lost Summer

Some albums demand ascetic listening, the kind that happens best in solitude or while wearing noise-canceling headphones. Such music has its place, especially in the colder months. But summer is made for the populist records—albums ideally consumed secondhand, whether blaring from the bass-heavy stereos of cars parading down hot, crowded streets or wafting from the open windows of apartments down the block.

The Colorful Blooms of Castelluccio, Italy

In central Italy, the small village of Castelluccio sits atop a hill overlooking the Piano Grande—a broad basin surrounded by the Sibillini Mountains—where fields of lentils and poppies bloom every year, carpeting the landscape with a colorful quilt of blossoming flowers. Every summer the phenomenon is viewed by thousands of tourists, and this year, the photographers Antonio Masiello and Tiziana Fabi visited the fields, sending back these photos.

“They Don’t Care About Our Health”: Hunger Striker at Otay Mesa ICE Jail Speaks Out as COVID Spreads

As COVID-19 infections continue to rise behind bars, we go inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California to speak with Anthony Alexandre, a longtime U.S. resident of Haitian descent, who describes conditions at the for-profit jail, run by private prison company CoreCivic, which has seen a mass outbreak of COVID-19, leading to at least 167 infections and one death. “Basically, CoreCivic is telling us they do not care about our health,” says Alexandre.

The Dangerous Race for the Covid Vaccine

The international competition for a coronavirus vaccine harkens back to the golden age of Edison and the Wright Brothers. But excesses of national pride and one-upmanship are threatening to overwhelm the common good.