Today's Liberal News

You Might Want to Wait to Get a Booster Shot

After a long and tense meeting today, an FDA committee unanimously recommended that the agency authorize third shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for Americans who are over 65 or at high risk of severe COVID. The vote came after the panel voted overwhelmingly against the original question up for its consideration: authorizing boosters for everyone over 16.

Lil Nas X Isn’t a Fad. He’s the Future of Pop.

Charlotte Rutherford / Sony
One of the great mysteries of our lifetime is how the banjo loop and fake drawl of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” blew up into one of the biggest hits ever. The common explanations for its popularity just don’t suffice. Yes, Montero Lamar Hill is a marketing genius and meme master, but jokes alone don’t get auditoriums of children to sing your song.

The Morning Show Has Become a Camp Masterpiece

About four episodes into the new season of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, I stopped expecting it to have the qualities of a prestige television series—narrative complexity, emotional resonance, logic—and began simply appreciating it for what it is: one of the most batshit-expensive soap operas ever made. And that’s perfect.

Parents Are Tired of Waiting for Vaccines for Their Kids. So They’re Lying.

These days, the distance between ages 11 and 12 is more than a year. It is a chasm between danger and safety. Vaccines promise people 12 and older protection from COVID-19, but aren’t yet approved in the U.S. for younger children, and it isn’t clear exactly when they will be. Frustrated by the wait and desperate to protect their children, some parents are sneaking their 10- and 11-year-old kids across this chasm, and hoping not to get caught.

“Another World Is Possible”: How Occupy Wall Street Reshaped Politics & Kicked Off New Era of Protest

On the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, we examine the legacy of the historic protests with three veterans of the movement: Nelini Stamp, now the director of strategy and partnerships at the Working Families Party; Jillian Johnson, a key organizer in Occupy Durham who now serves on the Durham City Council and is the city’s mayor pro tempore; and writer and filmmaker Astra Tayor, an organizer with the Debt Collective.

Forced Entry: NSO Group Spies Secretly Seized Control of Apple Devices by Exploiting Flaw in Code

Apple has released an emergency software update to fix a security flaw in its iPhones and other products researchers found was being exploited by the Israeli-based NSO Group to infect the devices with its Pegasus spyware. The security exploit exposes “widespread abuse that we have associated with NSO Group and other companies like it,” says Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which discovered the security flaw.

News Roundup: Insurrection echoes; public faith in Supreme Court is tanking

In the news today: A new pro-insurrectionist rally is planned for this Saturday, but it’s likely to be a bust. That doesn’t mean that the danger of domestic terrorism is diminishing, however. Meanwhile, Trump’s allies are launching new attacks on a top military official after a new book disclosed steps the military took to help ensure Trump couldn’t launch a rogue nuclear attack or start a new world war as he spiraled into post-election delusion.