Today's Liberal News

Guess Which Republican Congressmembers Sought Pardons After Trying to Help Trump Subvert Vote

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol revealed Thursday that six Republican members of Congress who supported Donald Trump’s lies sought broad presidential pardons for their involvement in the campaign to discredit the election results: Mo Brooks of Alabama, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona.

“Pure Insanity”: Trump Pushed DOJ to Chase Absurd Conspiracy Theories to Overturn 2020 Election

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has revealed new details about former President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department to help him stay in power after he lost the 2020 election. In the committee’s fifth televised public hearing Thursday, former top DOJ officials testified about how Trump urged the department to seize voting machines and declare the election results corrupt.

News Roundup: Supreme Court erases a century of gun laws; witnesses testify on Clark’s role in coup

In another ruling relying on historical errata of the 1600s to nullify laws passed centuries later, Supreme Court conservatives overturned a New York law that put limits on who can carry concealed handguns. The families of future mass murder victims can rest assured that their loved ones did not die in vain, but as a nod to the beliefs of 17th century witch hunters and English partisans concerned about the political dynamics after the Stuart Reformation.

‘Put the food on our table every day’: Labor icon Dolores Huerta urges passage of farmworker bill

The U.S. House under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year passed a historic bill that would put undocumented farmworkers onto a path to legal status. That legislation passed the chamber with support from 30 Republicans, surpassing the bipartisan support for the bill legalizing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals beneficiaries. 

But more than a year after House passage, the U.S.

The Problem Is Gun Culture, Not SCOTUS

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 used to think of myself as a gun-control conservative—I supported both the right to own firearms and the interest of the state to limit that right—but America’s gun culture isn’t about rights. It’s about performative insecurity.

What a Gas-Tax Holiday Won’t Do

Gas prices in the U.S. are close to $5 a gallon, President Joe Biden’s approval rating is 36 percent, and the first phenomenon has a lot to do with the second. But the factors that have driven gas prices higher are largely out of Biden’s control, at least in the near term. So it wasn’t a shock when he announced yesterday that he was asking Congress to suspend the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gas tax for three months.

I Was a Police Officer for 20 Years. I Know What It Means to Put More Guns on the Street.

Police officers have a vested interest in keeping illegal guns off the streets, a difficult-enough task already. Now the United States Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen has found unconstitutional the New York law that strictly limited who could carry a firearm in public in the nation’s largest metropolis. At one blow, this ruling ends a restriction that has for decades helped hold down the number of guns in private hands in New York City.

Fashion Has Abandoned Human Taste

As best as I can tell, the puff-sleeve onslaught began in 2018. The clothing designer Batsheva Hay’s eponymous brand was barely two years old, but her high-necked, ruffle-trimmed, elbow-covering dresses in dense florals and upholstery prints—bizarro-world reimaginings of the conservative frocks favored by Hasidic Jewish women and the Amish—had developed a cult following among weird New York fashion-and-art girls.

Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccines & Tests Limited by WTO Deal Pushed by Rich Countries & Big Pharma

Hundreds of public health and civil society organizations have denounced the World Trade Organization for approving a text last week that they say leaves in place intellectual property barriers that will continue to limit global access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. We host an in-depth discussion about the WTO’s move, and what should come next, with two global health justice advocates, Mihir Mankad and Fatima Hassan.

Food Shortage or Economic Crisis? Experts Say Poverty & Capitalism Are Real Drivers of Global Hunger

We speak with food systems experts Sofía Monsalve Suárez and Rachel Bezner Kerr about how to prevent a looming global food shortage. The global food crisis “is not a food shortage crisis” yet, says Suárez, secretary general of FIAN International, a human rights organization working for the right to food and nutrition. “The problem is access to food, that people don’t have money to pay for food, that people are jobless.

“The Famine Is Coming”: War in Ukraine & Climate Crisis Contribute to Food Insecurity in Somalia

Experts are warning of a pending global food shortage due to the climate crisis, blocked grain shipments amid the Ukraine war, and a lack of humanitarian aid. Joining us from Mogadishu, Somalia, Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, says poorer countries in Africa aren’t able to financially compete with richer countries to afford basic staples like wheat.

Earthquake in Afghanistan Kills 1,000+. As Death Toll Rises, U.S. Sanctions Limit International Aid

A massive 5.9-magnitude earthquake that struck southeastern Afghanistan early Wednesday has killed more than 1,000 people, according to local officials, though the death toll is expected to rise. The earthquake comes as the United Nations reports nearly half of Afghanistan’s population already faces acute hunger. Thousands more have been injured and lost their homes along with everything they own.