Today's Liberal News

Stars Aren’t Supposed to Go Out Like This

A star has gone missing.Not in our own Milky Way, but in a galaxy about 75 million light-years away. The star in question is so hot that it glows crystal blue, and it shines a couple million times brighter than the star we know best, our sun. Even as stars go, it’s massive. Astronomers have studied it for nearly two decades, so it was pretty disconcerting when, one day last year, they looked at the latest observations and realized they couldn’t find it anymore.

Paging Dr. Hamblin: Are Kids Really Spared From the Coronavirus?

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, James Hamblin takes questions from readers about health-related curiosities, concerns, and obsessions. Have one? Email him at paging.dr.hamblin@theatlantic.com.Dear Dr. Hamblin,I’m a college professor, but homeschooling my 6-year-old is proving to be one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I’m currently failing. Naturally, I have a lot of questions as schools are discussing reopening in the fall.

Hong Kong Is a Colony Once More

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, stood in front of reporters yesterday for the most consequential press conference of her time leading the city. Prior to Lam stepping behind the podium, news had begun to stream in that officials in Beijing had passed a national-security law to be imposed on Hong Kong, the most significant altering of the ostensibly autonomous territory’s status since it was handed back to China from Britain in 1997.

Ed Yong on the “Disgraceful” U.S. Pandemic Response & How Medicare for All Could Have Saved Lives

As the United States experiences the world’s worst outbreak of COVID-19, we speak with Ed Yong, science writer for The Atlantic, who warned of the country’s unpreparedness for a viral outbreak in 2018. Now he says “it’s truly shocking and disgraceful” how badly the pandemic has been handled in the United States, and blames a lack of federal leadership for most of the damage.

Jamaal Bowman on NY Primary Upset, Rent Strikes, Police Brutality & Opposing West Bank Annexation

As a surge of a progressive candidates of color see victories in Democratic primaries across the country, we speak with former Bronx middle school principal Jamaal Bowman about his upset victory over New York Congressmember Eliot Engel, the 16-term Foreign Affairs Committee chair. Bowman ran on a Green New Deal, Medicare for All platform and recently joined protests demanding an end to racism and police brutality.

‘More inclusive and welcoming America’: Biden says he’ll reverse decimation of U.S. refugee program

The Trump administration, under the watch of White House aide and noted white supremacist Stephen Miller, has taken a sledgehammer to the U.S. refugee program, decimating annual admissions from 110,000 set by the Obama administration to a historic low of just 18,000. On World Refugee Day this past weekend, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pledged to go even beyond the number set by the Obama administration.

Trump thinks he can save his campaign with a new Supreme Court nominee

Donald Trump has been nursing yet another grudge as he squats in the Oval Office: the Supreme Court that keeps thwarting him. He wants a fix figuring that a last-minute Supreme Court appointment would give him a big political boost ahead of November’s election. At least, that’s what CNN’s sources are saying.

Supreme Court allows Trump administration to resume federal executions after 17-year pause

Though it was buried in yet another frantic news day, on Monday the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume federal executions by letting stand an appeals court ruling allowing the same. After a 17-year pause, the 60 prisoners on federal death row will now face new execution dates.

It was Attorney General William Barr, of course, who had indicated that his department would be lifting the hiatus.

Pride Can’t Go Back to What It Was Before

It might have been the sight of a muscled roller skater in a lacy tutu, or of a thong-clad twerker commanding an on-the-move cheering circle, or of a giant papier-mâché puppet of Janelle Monáe that sparked the epiphany.