Today's Liberal News

Guards pepper-sprayed and restrained asylum-seekers by the neck for protesting their detention

Detained people at a privately operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility say guards pepper-sprayed them and placed their knees on their necks after engaging in an act of civil disobedience in protest of their ongoing detention during the novel coronavirus pandemic, Mother Jones reports. The facility, LaSalle Corrections Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, has had 65 confirmed COVID-19 cases and two guards have died after becoming sick.

Listen: People Are Panic-Moving

In the past few months, after the pandemic hit, many people have chosen to leave big cities—at least for now. Amanda Mull joins executive producer Katherine Wells and staff writer James Hamblin to talk about whether their departures will be permanent.Listen to the episode here:Subscribe to Social Distance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or another podcast platform to receive new episodes as soon as they’re published.

The Atlantic Daily: What to Read, Listen to, and Watch This Weekend

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.Even quarantine fatigue feels old now, the restlessness being replaced with a shrug. Whether you live in an area that is reopening or one that is experiencing a new surge of cases, our critics can help. Here’s what to read, listen to, and watch this weekend.

Why People Are Obsessed With a Terrible Polish Erotic Thriller

Saliva has had a strange few years.It seems like just yesterday that the phrase Spit in my mouth catapulted to memetic heights, after the 2018 wide release of Disobedience, a romance film about two Orthodox Jewish women that involves a meticulously choreographed and widely shared sex scene. Saliva had another big moment in 2019: During the first season of Netflix’s thoughtful British raunchfest Sex Education, a memorable encounter between two teenage boys only inspired more memes.

Trump Can’t Bluff His Way Out of This

“We’ve done an incredible, historic job,” President Donald Trump boasted Thursday about U.S. anti-coronavirus efforts.The president was right, but not in the way he intended. While Trump traveled to Wisconsin, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was telling reporters that he believes that 20 million Americans have been infected. The Labor Department was announcing almost 1.

The Books Briefing: How to Tell a Story About Florida

“Seek to encapsulate Florida in a single narrative, and you’ll find yourself thwarted,” Lauren Groff writes in a review of Kent Russell’s In the Land of Good Living. In the book, Russell and his friends walk from the northwest corner of Florida’s panhandle south to Miami’s Coconut Grove, learning the state’s lore and teasing apart “the accepted story of Florida” from “the actual—far darker—story.

In Racial Justice Victory, Johnson & Johnson to Pay $2B to Women in Asbestos-Laced Baby Powder Suit

Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $2.1 billion to a group of women who developed ovarian cancer after using talcum powder contaminated with asbestos. Johnson & Johnson heavily marketed the powder to African American women despite warnings that the products could cause cancer. Six of the plaintiffs in the Johnson & Johnson case died before the trial started. Five more of the women have died since 2018. We get response from M.

One Bad Algorithm? Advocates Say Facial Recognition Reveals Systemic Racism in AI Technology

The controversy over police use of facial recognition technology has accelerated after a Black man in Michigan revealed he was wrongfully arrested because of the technology. Detroit police handcuffed Robert Williams in front of his wife and daughters after facial recognition software falsely identified him as a suspect in a robbery. Researchers say facial recognition software is up to 100 times more likely to misidentify people of color than white people.

The End of Asylum? Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on Fast-Tracking Deportations

The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory Thursday when it ruled the government can fast-track deportations of asylum seekers without first allowing them to fight for their cases in front of a judge. The ACLU’s Lee Gelernt argued the case in court on behalf of Tamil asylum seeker Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam. “It’s a very serious decision and will adversely affect many, many asylum seekers,” says Gelernt.

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.