Today's Liberal News

What Simone Biles Understands About Greatness

Central to Simone Biles’s appeal as an athlete, even to viewers only flimsily acquainted with the rules and rituals of her sport, is the clarity of her gift. You do not have to know the specs of the original “Biles,” a double layout with a half twist and blind landing that distinguishes her floor routine, to wonder over her straightened limbs blurring and her equilibrium compensating.

Vaccines Are Great. Masks Make Them Even Better.

America’s split with masks turned out to be a brief hiatus. After getting their shots in the spring and early summer, many people figured they could dump their face coverings for good—a sentiment the CDC crystallized in May, when the agency gave fully immunized people its blessing to largely dispense with masking, indoors and out.

Gentle Encouragement Wasn’t Going to Be Enough

Here’s something I almost never say: The NFL is right.When pro football announced last week that it will impose stiff penalties on teams that experience a COVID-19 outbreak involving unvaccinated players, it exposed a serious vaccination divide among its athletes. Fans also learned in real time that some of their favorite NFL stars are not only vaccine-hesitant but also susceptible to some of the same misinformation that has duped millions of other Americans.

Unfortunately, I Care About Power Lines Now

Every week, our lead climate reporter brings you the big ideas, expert analysis, and vital guidance that will help you flourish on a changing planet. Sign up to get The Weekly Planet, our guide to living through climate change, in your inbox.A terrible thing happened to me recently. I started to care about electricity-transmission policy.In energy circles, the people who work on transmission are feared and respected in the same way a shriveled and reputable local mage might be.

Workers Beg Joe Manchin to Save West Virginia Pharma Plant as His Daughter Walks Away with $31M

More than 1,400 workers in West Virginia are set to lose their jobs this week when the Viatris pharmaceuticals plant in Morgantown shuts down and moves operations overseas to India and Australia. Workers say they’ve had no response to their urgent requests for help from their Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, who is often called the most powerful man in Washington. Viatris was formed through a merger between two pharmaceutical companies, Mylan and Upjohn.

NAACP Head Derrick Johnson Remembers Bob Moses as Key “Strategist” of Civil Rights Movement

We look at the life and legacy of civil rights icon Bob Moses, who recently died at the age of 86, with NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who formerly headed the NAACP Mississippi State Conference, where Moses served as field secretary for SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and helped register thousands of voters across the state. “Bob Moses was one of the most profound strategist leaders of the civil rights movement across the country,” says Johnson.

“To Hell and Back”: At Jan. 6 Hearing, Officers Describe Facing Brutal Attacks & Racial Slurs

We speak with Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, about emotional testimony from four police officers who were attacked by violent and racist Trump supporters while defending the Capitol. At the opening of the House select committee hearing on the January 6 insurrection, the officers described facing down the rioters, being beaten with fists and makeshift weapons, as well as being called racial slurs and accused of treason by the pro-Trump crowds.