Today's Liberal News

Home Demolition in Sheikh Jarrah Seen as Part of Broader Israeli Effort to Dispossess Palestinians

Israeli forces continue to expel Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem, a move that the United Nations has described as a possible war crime. We speak to Palestinian poet and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, whose own family is among those facing eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Sheikh Jarrah is also where the Salhiyeh family recently gained attention for threatening self-immolation while protesting their eviction and the demolition of their home.

‘Camp Auschwitz Guy’ pleads guilty to Jan. 6 charges

On Wednesday, 57-year-old Robert Keith Packer, known as the long-bearded prick wearing the “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt during the insurrection at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty to “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.” This guilty plea is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of six months in prison. His sentencing date is April 7.

CBP commissioner defends Border Patrol’s cover-up units as ‘vitally important’

The head of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is defending the department’s use of secretive, shadow police units that have been under mounting criticisms from both lawmakers and human rights advocates in recent months.

Commissioner Chris Magnus called Border Patrol’s Critical Incident Teams (BPCITs) “vitally important,” citing their role in evidence collection, Bloomberg Government reports.

Caribbean Matters: Statue of Puerto Rico exploiter Ponce de León toppled, even as gentrifiers invade

Puerto Rico has recently made headlines for stories that may seem unconnected; they are related, however. The common factor? Puerto Rico’s status as a colony—first under Spanish rule, and now as a “territory” of the United States. 

King Felipe VI of Spain arrived in Puerto Rico on Monday to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the founding of San Juan.

The IRS Should Stop Using Facial Recognition

With tax season upon us, the IRS is pushing individuals to submit to facial recognition in exchange for being able to complete a range of basic tax-related activities online. The IRS has retained a private firm—ID.me (formerly known as TroopSwap)—that claims to provide “secure identity proofing, authentication, and group affiliation verification for government and businesses across sectors.” The IRS is not the only government agency working with ID.me.

16 Indie Films to Get Excited About This Year

For the second year in a row, the Sundance Film Festival had to go completely virtual, but that didn’t stop the annual celebration from giving a robust preview of the most exciting emerging artists in Hollywood. Much of this year’s slate defied the pandemic’s limitations: Twisty horror films didn’t need Park City’s frigid climate to deliver chills.

Delta’s Not Dead Yet

Pour one out for Delta, the SARS-CoV-2 variant that Season 3 of the pandemic seems intent on killing off. After holding star billing through the summer and fall of 2021, Delta’s spent the past several weeks getting absolutely walloped by its feistier cousin Omicron—a virus that’s adept at both blitzing in and out of airways and dodging the antibodies that vaccines and other variants raise.

An American Age of Greed Should Have Been Perfect TV Fodder

The Gilded Age made its debut on HBO on January 24, which is also the writer Edith Wharton’s birthday—a detail that’s hard to ascribe to coincidence. Not only does the drama borrow Wharton’s milieu of 1880s New York City, but the show’s creator is also a self-proclaimed Whartonite.

“The Lords of Easy Money”: How the Federal Reserve Enriched Wall Street & Broke the U.S. Economy

As the Federal Reserve signals it will raise interest rates in March, we talk to Christopher Leonard, author of the new book “The Lords of Easy Money,” about how the Federal Reserve broke the American economy. He details the issues with quantitative easing, a radical intervention instituted by the federal government in 2010 to encourage banks and investors to lend more risky debt to combat the recession.

Despite U.S. Embargo, Cuba Aims to Share Homegrown Vaccine with Global South

A 60-year U.S. embargo that prevents U.S.-made products from being exported to Cuba has forced the small island nation to develop its own COVID-19 vaccines and rely on open source designs for life-saving medical equipment such as ventilators. We speak to leading Cuban scientist Dr. Mitchell Valdés-Sosa about how massive mobilization helped produce three original vaccines that have proven highly effective against the coronavirus.