FDA advisers recommend strain update to Covid-19 boosters ahead of expected fall surge
The advisory committee signaled a preference for the strain composition to target the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.
Today's Liberal News
‘How You React Is the Only Thing You Can Control’
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
HHS launches website in wake of Supreme Court abortion decision
The move may not be enough to stem criticism from progressive Democrats that the administration is not doing enough to protect legal abortion
Encrypt, Obscure, Compartmentalize: Protecting Your Digital Privacy in a Post-Roe World
Reproductive health advocates are urging Congress to pass the My Body, My Data Act, which will prevent consumer data that is related to reproductive health from being used as criminal evidence. Protecting how sensitive personal information is collected and stored online is critical to combating anti-abortion laws, says Daly Barnett, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Investigation: Facebook Is Helping Anti-Abortion Clinics Collect Highly Sensitive Info on People
We look at the fight for privacy rights in a post-Roe America amid concerns that anti-abortion activists could use identifying data from online platforms like Facebook to target abortion seekers. Investigative reporter Grace Oldham describes how this data is already being used by medically unlicensed “crisis pregnancy centers” that actively lure patients to discourage them from seeking abortions.
Texas Abortion Funds Push to Keep Supporting Patients as State AG Vows to Prosecute Advocates
Is raising money to send pregnant people to another state to get an abortion aiding and abetting? We speak to Kamyon Conner, executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, the first Black woman to head the organization, about how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has threatened to prosecute anyone violating a statewide abortion ban that was passed in the 1920s and never repealed. Lawmakers are also introducing bills to restrict FDA-approved abortion pills delivered through the mail.
Tragedy in Texas: 46 Found Dead in Suspected Smuggling Attempt Amid Biden’s Harsh Border Enforcement
At least 46 migrants were found dead Monday inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in one of the deadliest tragedies in recent decades. It comes as the Biden administration continues to enforce harsh border policies blocking most people from safely entering through ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Failure ‘not an option’: Fed vows all-out fight on inflation
Fears have mounted that the central bank might trigger a recession sometime in the next year with its aggressive rate action.
‘When do you stop?’: Fed inflation fight could trigger slump
Things are so dire that central bank policymakers might hike rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, a move not taken in almost 30 years.
U.S. inflation hit a new 40-year high last month of 8.6 percent
America’s rampant inflation is imposing severe pressures on families, forcing them to pay much more for food, gas and rent.
2022 Election: 7 States Set To Hold Primary Elections On Tuesday
This week’s nominating contests could offer the first clues as to whether the political landscape has shifted following the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade.
Trump-Backed Candidate Lashes Out At Fox News Over Drag Queen Question
“I thought you were a little better than CNN,” Kari Lake, an Arizona gubernatorial candidate, charged after she was asked about hypocrisy allegations.
News Roundup: Supreme Court erases another right; new Jan. 6 hearing announced
The Supreme Court continued to roll back all the rights you thought you had with a new uniquely dishonest decision allowing your school’s sports coaches to promote their own personal religion (so long as it’s the right one) to your kids during team sports, and if your kid doesn’t comply and is retaliated against by the rest of the team then guess what: That’s exactly what the court majority intends.
Ukraine update: Low on troops, Russia plays whack-a-mole with frisky Ukrainians
Russia managed to move 20 kilometers from Popasna to the southern outskirts of Lysychansk in six weeks. It managed that task by massing its artillery ahead of its lines of advance, then sending its best infantry (VDV airborne remnants and Wagner mercenaries) back and forth between Severodonetsk and the Popasna advance once artillery had reduced the next objective to rubble.
Sotomayor brings receipts against the radical Supreme Court majority attacks on the constitution
The six extremist justices on the Supreme Court furthered their coup over Congress, the White House, and the Constitution on Monday, and continued their hatchet job on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Trump-packed majority ruled that it was perfectly fine for a public school employee to make a display of his religious beliefs while on the job, and further, to exhort the students in his charge to participate in his public prayers. In Kennedy v.
Do not be distracted: Some key details that have emerged from the Jan. 6 probe
Between the Supreme Court and the U.S. Capitol, Americans are currently caught between two major historic events that have now collided: Most recently the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and before that affront to human rights, the investigation of the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the mounting and damning evidence of former President Donald Trump’s direct role in those insurrectionary acts.
Mother who ran into Texas school during shooting says cops are warning her to stop talking
A mother who heroically saved her children during the tragic Uvalde school shooting in May is experiencing harassment at the hands of local cops, Fox 29 reported. According to the local news outlet, the mother of two children who attended the Robb Elementary school where two teachers and 19 children were killed has faced backlash from law enforcement, even at home.
Whoopi Goldberg Sends Blistering Warning To Clarence Thomas On His Marriage Rights
“You better hope that they don’t come for you, Clarence,” the “View” host told the Supreme Court justice, who is married to a white woman.
Californians Will Vote On Enshrining Abortion Rights In State Constitution
California lawmakers passed a measure that will allow voters to decide whether to codify access to abortion and contraceptives in the state’s constitution.
FBI Seized Phone Of John Eastman, Key Figure In Effort To Overturn 2020 Election
Eastman filed a lawsuit demanding the device be returned after he was stopped by federal agents outside a restaurant last week.
Roe Was Flawed. Dobbs Is Worse.
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.I’m a conservative (or what used to be called a conservative) who always thought Roe v. Wade was the product of judicial activism. But overturning it is even worse.But first, here’s more from The Atlantic.
America is sliding into the long pandemic defeat, Ed Yong writes.
Roe Is the New Prohibition
The culture war raged most hotly from the ’70s to the next century’s ’20s. It polarized American society, dividing men from women, rural from urban, religious from secular, Anglo-Americans from more recent immigrant groups. At length, but only after a titanic constitutional struggle, the rural and religious side of the culture imposed its will on the urban and secular side. A decisive victory had been won, or so it seemed.
The Misgivings of Friend-Making
Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google | Pocket CastsIn the post-social-distancing era, some of us can’t remember how to make a new friend. But for many, making friends has always been a challenge—left as an unfulfilled desire without any clear course of action.
Top Biden officials press insurers on contraceptive coverage
Advocates for broad coverage say insurers are skirting the rules and denying coverage in some cases.
Will health insurers continue to cover abortion now that Roe has been overturned?
In some states, insurance may cover what is now or about to be an illegal procedure, while other states allow abortion but prohibit Medicaid from covering it except in limited circumstances.
How the Supreme Court abortion ruling changes health care
Court and legislative battles will soon begin or amplify. Here are just a few of the immediate and long-term implications of Roe falling.
The Strawberry Festival at the End of the World
Sign up for Kaitlyn and Lizzie’s newsletter here.Kaitlyn: The Hampton Jitney, according to a New York Times article from 1985, is “the quintessential transportation for a certain kind of New Yorker.” George Plimpton claimed to have written one and a half books while riding it. Lauren Bacall was also a well-known patron. Passengers were given free seltzer and newspapers then, but that is no longer the case.
Caught on Tape: “He Punched Me in the Face,” says RI Dem Hit by GOP Rival, a Cop, at Abortion Rally
During an abortion rights rally in Providence, Rhode Island, on Friday, Jennifer Rourke, Democratic candidate for state Senate, was punched multiple times by her Republican opponent Jeann Lugo, an off-duty Providence police officer. A video recording shows Lugo confronting Rourke before striking her in the face. Lugo dropped out of the race after being placed on paid administrative leave and charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct.
Missouri Enacts Abortion Ban Trigger Law. Planned Parenthood Opens Clinic 15 Mins. Away in Illinois.
We look at how reproductive health clinics are reacting to the overturning of Roe v. Wade last week. In at least 13 states, including Missouri, trigger laws that criminalize abortions are either already in effect or expected to soon kick in. Clinics have mobilized to center patient care by moving or referring them to safer states. We speak to Yamelsie Rodríguez, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.
“A Devastating Ruling”: Law Prof. Michele Goodwin & SCOTUS Attorney Kitty Kolbert on Overturning Roe
As protests continue across the country in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, speak with two leading legal scholars. Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert is co-founder of the Center for Reproductive Rights and argued the landmark case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992, which upheld Roe v. Wade. She is the co-author of “Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.