Today's Liberal News

Democrats Don’t Know How to Handle Bill Barr

House Democrats have already impeached President Donald Trump. Now they’re going after the man they call his new “fixer,” Attorney General Bill Barr.Barr, however, is proving to be a more slippery target than the president, both physically and politically.This afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the alleged “politicization” of the Justice Department featuring alarming whistleblower testimony.

Coronavirus: Thousands of Burials Across Latin America

Responses to the coronavirus pandemic have differed widely from country to country. Experts from the World Health Organization recently warned that the number of cases is now soaring in larger countries, with “worrying increases” developing in Latin America, with “a jump in cases in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia and Guatemala.” Brazil has now passed more than 1 million recorded cases, with more than 52,700 deaths attributed to the virus so far.

Outbreak at San Quentin: COVID Is Skyrocketing in CA Prisons. Why Haven’t More People Been Released?

As coronavirus rapidly spreads through California’s overcrowded prisons, 400 people have tested positive for the virus at San Quentin State Prison. Advocates and incarcerated people warn conditions behind bars make it nearly impossible to stop the virus once it enters. We speak with Adnan Khan, executive director of Re:Store Justice, an organization that advocates for policy and alternative responses to violence and life sentences.

How Black Lives Matter Protests Are Shifting Racial Justice Dialogues in Professional Sports

The Black Lives Matter protests are dramatically shifting dialogues about racial justice in sports, says former NBA player, author and activist Etan Thomas. He describes how athletes are forcing a reckoning about systemic racism in professional sports, including in NASCAR, which has rallied around the sole Black driver competing in the Cup Series, Bubba Wallace, who led a push to ban Confederate flags from races. “It’s amazing what’s happening in NASCAR,” Thomas says.

Palestinian Scholar Noura Erakat: Israeli Forces Killed My Cousin on His Sister’s Wedding Day

Israeli soldiers on Tuesday killed 27-year-old Ahmed Erekat at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank as he was on his way to pick up his sister, who was set to be married that night. Ahmed Erekat is the nephew of senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and cousin of Palestinian American legal scholar Noura Erakat, who says Israeli claims that Ahmed was attempting a car-ramming attack on soldiers are completely unfounded.

The Next AOC? Progressive Insurgent Jamaal Bowman Takes Big Lead Over Rep. Eliot Engel in NY Primary

In what could be one of the biggest progressive upsets of the year, Jamaal Bowman, an African American former middle school principal, appears headed to victory over 16-term Democratic Congressmember Eliot Engel in Tuesday’s New York primary election. The race has not been called, but Bowman has a large lead over Engel, the powerful chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee known for his support of Israel. Bowman supports a Green New Deal, Medicare for All and defunding the police.

Five Black & Brown Men Have Been Recently Found Hanged in Public. Were Some of Them Lynched?

As mass protests against racism and police brutality continue, at least five men — four Black and one Latinx — have been found hanging in public across the U.S. in recent weeks. We speak with Jacqueline Olive, director of “Always in Season,” a documentary that examines the history of lynchings through the story of Lennon Lacy, an African American teenager who was found hanged from a swing set in 2014.

America’s Uniquely Humiliating Moment

“He hated America very deeply,” John le Carré wrote of his fictional Soviet mole, Bill Haydon, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Haydon had just been unmasked as a double agent at the heart of Britain’s secret service, one whose treachery was motivated by animus, not so much to England but to America. “It’s an aesthetic judgment as much as anything,” Haydon explained, before hastily adding: “Partly a moral one, of course.

Massive Saharan dust cloud blankets Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico can’t catch a break. Still attempting to recover from Hurricane Maria, with power problems exacerbated by the recent earthquakes, COVID-19, and a failing healthcare system (thanks to U.S. government Medicaid funding inequities), now the island has been hit by a Saharan dust cloud.

Reports are being posted to social media from the island:

Sahara Dust on its way here to Puerto Rico.  It’s the biggest wave we’ve ever gotten before.