Today's Liberal News

The Atlantic Daily: What Covid Could Look Like One Year From Now

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.The United States is logging record-setting numbers of coronavirus cases in the final week of 2021. The country is now averaging more than 300,000 new cases per day as it prepares to enter a third calendar year spent battling the pandemic.

The Books Briefing: 5 Short Stories to Read This Weekend

Editor’s note: This week’s newsletter is a rerun.
We’ll be back with a fresh newsletter next week.
I often think of fiction as fact’s partner in the pursuit of truth. At its best, the genre is capable of rendering the worlds we’re unable to imagine, and also of revealing the ones hidden around us. Last year, The Atlantic recommitted itself to publishing fiction with greater frequency.

These Long-Distance Friends Reunite Every New Year’s Like No Time Has Passed

Each installment of “The Friendship Files” features a conversation between The Atlantic’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.This week she talks with three men whose international group of friends has been having an annual New Year’s Eve reunion party for the past 10 years (except for 2020, when the pandemic prevented it).

Our Highways Are an Ever-Expanding Museum of America’s Wars

South of downtown Columbus, Ohio, lost on the way to a tailgate, I saw the road sign bearing his name. The brown aluminum placard flashed between passing cars. I’d been holding my phone, listening to directions, and I dropped it. I could hardly make out the words on the sign, and then it disappeared behind semis, but I knew what they said: Army Specialist Nicholaus E. Zimmer Memorial Highway.

The NBA and NFL Surrendered to Their Vaccine Refusers

The Brooklyn Nets have officially ended their tug-of-war with Kyrie Irving over the star point guard’s vaccination status. And Irving, who has refused to get a COVID-19 shot, is unquestionably the winner.The rapid spread of the coronavirus’s Omicron variant has left gaps on rosters across the NBA.

The Atlantic Daily: Three Reasons to Be Optimistic About the 2020s

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.This year was … a lot. Delta, Omicron, inflation, threats to democracy. I get why most people are feeling exhausted.I still believe that better times are coming.

Russia’s Aggression Against Ukraine Is Backfiring

Western intelligence agencies have warned that Russia is contemplating an invasion of Ukraine, perhaps involving some 175,000 troops. Vladimir Putin’s government has already moved more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, including into Belarus. Russian officials have been making outrageously paranoid and false accusations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, for example, recently blamed NATO for the return of the “nightmare scenario of military confrontation.

Arundhati Roy on the Media, Vaccine Inequity, Authoritarianism in India & Challenging U.S. Wars

We go to New Delhi, India, to speak with acclaimed Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy about the pandemic, U.S. militarism and the state of journalism. Roy first appeared on Democracy Now! after receiving widespread backlash for speaking out against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. At the time, her emphatic antiwar stance clashed with the rising tides of patriotism and calls for war after 9/11. “Now the same media is saying what we were saying 20 years ago,” says Roy.

Poet Martín Espada on “Floaters,” the Dehumanization of Refugees, Puerto Rico & His Father

Acclaimed poet Martín Espada recently won the National Book Award for Poetry for his anthology “Floaters.” He became just the third Latinx poet to win the award. “Floaters” is titled after the photo of the Salvadoran father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande in June 2019 trying to cross into the United States, one that sparked outrage at the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border. Espada discusses U.S.

News Roundup: Insurrection probe wants to hear from McCarthy; Florida’s governor goes missing

In the news today: The House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection wants to hear from yet another House Republican who was in contact with Donald Trump that day: Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, whose pleas to Trump for assistance during the violence were rebuffed. The new year is bringing at least some good news, as new government rules take effect curtailing surprise medical bills.

BBC News admits error after tapping Epstein pal Alan Dershowitz to analyze Ghislaine Maxwell verdict

When Fox News demonstrates more journalistic scruples than the BBC, you know we’re in trouble. 

Famed constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz, who thinks the Constitution gives Donald Trump the power to do anything he wants so long as he’s earnestly attempting to steal elections, appeared on BBC News Wednesday after Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on five counts of sex trafficking.

Changes to COVID-19 guidance lead to hilarious ‘the CDC recommends’ trend on Twitter

Amid the increasing number of COVID-19 cases across the U.S. due to the omicron variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced some recent changes to coronavirus guidelines on Dec. 27. While one would assume the recommendations would be stricter given the surge in cases, the announcement came as a shock to many because the CDC instead shortened the recommended isolation and quarantine period for people with COVID-19.

‘She died in my arms’: Mom watches 14-year-old daughter shot by stray police bullet in fitting room

A 14-year-old aspiring engineer who came to America from Chile after fearing for her safety was killed two days before Christmas in a tragic police shooting. Valentina Orellana-Peralta wasn’t a suspect when officers were called to a Burlington department store to investigate an assault with a deadly weapon in progress around 11:45 AM Thursday in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, police said in a news release.

Caribbean Matters: Cruise ships, COVID-19, and the economics of tourism

When winter cold sweeps through parts of the United States, the desire for warmer weather has always sent Americans to places like the Caribbean. Even during this pandemic, U.S. tourists long to go somewhere, no matter the possible risks to their health or to the health of the people who call their holiday destinations home.

Though many tourists arrive by air, pleasure cruising to the Caribbean has a long history.