Today's Liberal News

‘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.

News Roundup: Jan. 6 probe to add new public hearings; Republicans targeting parents of trans kids

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 coup attempt will be adding more public hearings to its schedule due to the continued revelation of new evidence; those hearings will be held “later in July,” says committee chair Bennie Thompson. In the meantime committee members are being provided with beefed-up security due to threats of violence by pro-coup Trump supporters.

Ukraine update: As Russia finally gains ground in eastern Ukraine, a reminder why it matters little

  • by

I’ve never understood Ukraine’s defense of Severodonetsk. I posted this image on May 26…

… and wrote: 

I circled Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the map above as a reminder, that even if Russia takes Severodonetsk (probable) and Lysychansk (less probable), any such advance will crash at the gates of [the] heavily fortified cities [of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk], with clear supply lines and artillery support to their west.

Survey reveals Black immigrant domestic workers continue to face pandemic-related instability

Black immigrant domestic workers who were already vulnerable in their workplace settings have continued to struggle more than two years since the onset of the pandemic, new survey findings show. The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Black Worker Initiative and the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) said that 37% of respondents from a survey of 1,000 domestic workers revealed the’ve had difficulty finding work.