New Law Ends COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate For US Troops
U.S. military forces around the world will no longer be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Today's Liberal News
A Year of Botched Executions
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.This year, the state of Alabama botched three consecutive executions by lethal injection: One man died after three hours of apparent torture, while two others lived. “The state’s incompetence,” Elizabeth Bruenig wrote last month, is “a civil-rights crisis.
Trump’s Eagerness To Use Military On June 2020 Protests Made Pentagon Coup-Wary
The Jan. 6 House select committee’s report details how military leaders came to fear the ex-president would misuse troops in an attempt to cling to power.
How Many Republicans Died Because the GOP Turned Against Vaccines?
No country has a perfect COVID vaccination rate, even this far into the pandemic, but America’s record is particularly dismal. About a third of Americans—more than a hundred million people—have yet to get their initial shots. You can find anti-vaxxers in every corner of the country.
The Israeli Government Goes Extreme Right
In 2015, an Israeli police investigation into Jewish extremism uncovered a wedding video that shocked the public. In the clip, a group of far-right revelers were captured celebrating by stabbing a picture of a Palestinian baby who had been murdered in a recent firebombing in the West Bank village of Duma, perpetrated by a settler extremist. The guests at this affair drew from the furthest reaches of the Israeli right, and included a lawyer named Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Remembering the Strange Dream of Lockdown New York
New York City in the early days of pandemic shutdowns was a horrible place to be. As fatal chaos unfolded in the hospitals, a gloriously noisy soundscape was replaced by terrifyingly constant sirens and the thrum of refrigerated morgue trucks. Anyone on the sidewalk, many of them essential workers who had no choice but to be there, moved away from other passersby in a fearful overshoot of the recommended six-foot separation.
Should Everyone Be Masking Again?
Winter is here, and so, once more, are mask mandates. After last winter’s crushing Omicron spike, much of America did away with masking requirements. But with cases once again on the rise and other respiratory illnesses such as RSV and influenza wreaking havoc, some scattered institutions have begun reinstating them. On Monday, one of Iowa’s largest health systems reissued its mandate for staff.
“The Quest to Defuse Guyana’s Carbon Bomb”: Meet the Environmental Lawyer Taking On ExxonMobil
We speak with Guyanese environmental lawyer Melinda Janki about how she’s taking on the oil giant ExxonMobil to stop the company from developing an offshore oil field that would turn Guyana into a “carbon bomb.” Guyana is currently a carbon sink, but Exxon plans to produce more than 1 million barrels of oil a day, which could transform the South American country into one of the world’s top oil producers by 2030.
“This Is a Racial Backlash”: Stanford Prof. Hakeem Jefferson on Role of White Supremacy in Capitol Attack
The House select committee on the January 6 attack released its final 845-page report Thursday, and the word “racism” appears only once throughout the entire document — despite the central role white supremacist groups played in the insurrection. “Those who stormed the Capitol … didn’t merely come in defense of Donald Trump,” says Stanford professor Hakeem Jefferson, an expert on issues of race and identity in American politics.
“The Central Cause of January 6th Was One Man”: House Panel Urges Trump Be Banned from Public Office
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol released its final 845-page report on the insurrection at the Capitol and Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The report names former President Trump as the central cause of the insurrection and calls for expanded efforts by the government to combat far-right and white supremacist groups.
In one state Senate race, signs of a national struggle over abortion
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has proposed prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy in his recently released budget, but doesn’t yet have the votes to enact that ban.
First post-Roe spending bill includes no funding boost for family planning, angering groups
With Republicans taking the House majority next year, progressives had framed the bill as a critical opportunity.
Why Democrats warmed to severing Medicaid eligibility from the Covid public health emergency
The Congressional Budget Office assumes the public health emergency for Covid will expire in July — barring another extension by the Biden administration.
‘THE central issue’: How the fall of Roe v. Wade shook the 2022 election
More than 50 Democratic and Republican elected officials, campaign aides and consultants took POLITICO inside the first campaign after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
White House Covid doctor: Safe to gather, but …
During the holidays, “people are gathering, as they should,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said.
U.S. inflation slowed sharply to 7.1 percent over past 12 months
Even with last month’s further easing of inflation, the Federal Reserve plans to keep raising interest rates.
Fed jacks up rates again but Powell hints it might slow down
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
Voters remain gloomy despite recent economic gains
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
U.S. economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6 percent
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
Six Charged in Atlanta with Domestic Terrorism for Protesting “Cop City” Training Facility
Six people in Atlanta have been charged with domestic terrorism for taking part in protests against a massive new police training facility known as Cop City. The protesters were taking part in a months-long encampment in a forested area of Atlanta where the city wants to build a $90 million, 85-acre training center on the site of a former prison farm. Conservationists have long wanted to protect the area, the South River Forest, from future development.
U.S.-Venezuelan Relations Thaw After Years of Harsh Sanctions Helped Worsen Economic & Migrant Crisis
The Biden administration recently moved to ease some sanctions on Venezuela and gave Chevron the green light to resume oil production in Venezuela. Venezuela has faced a years-long economic crisis in part due to harsh U.S. sanctions. Miguel Tinker Salas joins us to discuss shifting U.S.-Venezuelan relations, as well as their impacts on Venezuelan migrants to the U.S.
Arizona Lawyers: Kari Lake Election Loss Lawsuit Lacks Merit
Democrat Katie Hobbs won the state’s gubernatorial race by just over 17,000 votes.
IRS Bashed For Dropping The Ball On Trump Tax Audits
The “deferential” agency was reportedly overwhelmed by an army of Trump accountants and lawyers and the complexity of his tangled businesses.
CNN Anchor Presses Jan. 6 Committee Member Zoe Lofgren In Tense On-Air Exchange
Republicans are set to take over the House majority next month, and it’s unlikely the ethics committee’s GOP members will go after fellow party members.
Ex-Federal Prosecutor Predicts ‘We’re Finally At Tick Tock’ For Trump In 2023
“Lots of reasons for him to be concerned heading into 2023,” former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance told MSNBC.
Trump Admitted It Was ‘Embarrassing’ He Lost, According To Cassidy Hutchinson Transcript
Trump unleashed a rant two days before Hutchinson’s testimony transcript was released. The ex-president claimed he was always certain he won the 2020 vote.
FINAL REPORT: The January 6 committee publishes its final report on the insurrection
The Jan. 6 Committee has published its final report. You can find it here.
The report is a sweeping 845 pages and features rich narratives neatly divided into different phases of former President Donald Trump’s push to overturn the results of the 2020 election before finally inciting an insurrection at the U.S Capitol.
Each section will be updated.
1.
Far right’s armed thugs unable to intimidate LGBTQ community, thanks to large crowds of defenders
The antidemocratic far right has been building momentum for its campaign of intimidation against the LGBTQ community this year by organizing gangs of armed neofascist thugs to turn out at their events—ranging from Pride gatherings to drag-queen story hours—and has largely done so without resistance. That’s beginning to change—and it seems to be making a difference.
Ukraine update: 100,000 Russian soldiers have died. Bakhmut stands
UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 22, 2022 · 11:09:38 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
💬 Russian MFA Spokesperson Maria Zakharova: Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations @SergiyKyslytsya tweeted a new flag of Ukraine 👇 This is exactly what we’ve been talking about all these years – though no one believed. Well, congrats! https://t.
T’was the night before Christmas, and Rand Paul is being Rand Paul again
What … what am I looking at here?
🎄 I wrote and performed my own scary version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas 🎄 Enjoy! pic.twitter.