Today's Liberal News

COVID-19 relief has helped many avoid deep poverty, but a steep cliff is coming in one month

The rise in poverty many economists projected as a result of the coronavirus pandemic has been largely avoided, capped by the relief bills passed in March, two new studies posit. But the one time payment of $1,200 per person was just one time, and the extra assistance in unemployment benefits, as well as their extension to contract and gig workers, ends at the end of July with no apparent intention on the part of Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate to extend it.

High turnout could turn into voting problems in Kentucky primary

Two weeks after Georgia’s primary election debacle (or voter suppression success, depending how you look at it), Kentucky is up, and there are worrying signs. Interest in voting is clearly sky-high, with more than one in four registered voters in the state having requested absentee ballots and thousands having voted early. Those are good things—but the worry is about Tuesday, and how polling places will handle a possible rush of voters.

The Atlantic Daily: Trump’s Miserable Week

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.PATRICK SEMANSKY / APDonald Trump had a tough week. As my colleague David A. Graham put it: “From his campaign to the coronavirus, from the economy to the courts, from polls to policy, Trump stumbled on every front.

The First U.S. General to Call Trump a Bigot

The gnawing in retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez’s gut began in June 2015, when Donald Trump rode a golden escalator to the basement of Trump Tower and announced his candidacy for president. In his impromptu speech, Trump likened Mexican immigrants to a plague. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume,” the candidate offered almost as an afterthought, “are good people.

A Solstice ‘Ring of Fire’ Solar Eclipse

Yesterday, the moon crossed in front of the sun in an annular solar eclipse, as seen by residents across broad sections of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. A “ring of fire” was visible in the sky above the zone of totality, as the moon appeared slightly smaller than the sun. Photographers in several countries documented the phenomenon—one of only two solar eclipses taking place this year—and some of its many observers.

The Night Trump Stopped Trying

Five years ago this month, on June 16, 2015, Donald Trump delivered one of the indelible images of 21st-century politics when he slowly descended a gold escalator to a rally announcing his candidacy for the presidency.On Saturday, he delivered another iconic image, but not the sort he wanted to produce.

Three Plausible—And Troubling—Reasons Why Barr Tried to Force Berman Out

The big question is why.Why would the president fire a federal prosecutor just five months before an election, with no indication of wrongdoing on the prosecutor’s part, in a manner sure to ignite controversy?Three days into the scandal around the abrupt dismissal of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, we still have no answers.

Five Black & Brown Men Have Been Recently Found Hanged in Public. Were Some of Them Lynched?

As mass protests against racism and police brutality continue, at least five men — four Black and one Latinx — have been found hanging in public across the U.S. in recent weeks. We speak with Jacqueline Olive, director of “Always in Season,” a documentary that examines the history of lynchings through the story of Lennon Lacy, an African American teenager who was found hanged from a swing set in 2014.

Trump’s Reelection Playbook: Racist Tropes & Downplaying COVID Pandemic by Slowing Down Testing

As the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 nears 120,000 and mass protests against police brutality and racism continue, President Trump faces condemnation for his remarks at his poorly attended campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he repeated racist terms like “kung flu” and lashed out at protesters. “You just see this tremendous impulse to divide,” says Emily Bazelon, staff writer at The New York Times Magazine. “This is what has worked for Trump in the past.