Today's Liberal News

U.S. Accuses Russia of Using Cluster Bombs in Ukraine as Both Refuse to Endorse International Ban

President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal for the first time Wednesday for atrocities in Ukraine, as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on whether Russian forces have been using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine. Cluster bombs explode in midair and spew hundreds of smaller “bomblets.” The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said their use in Ukraine may amount to war crimes.

Syrian Activist Condemns Russia for Targeting Civilians & Hospitals from Aleppo to Mariupol

As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth week, Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have increasingly attacked civilian areas to pound Ukrainian cities into submission, a strategy Russia has employed to devastating effect in Syria, where the Russian Air Force has bombed many cities to rubble in an effort to support the government of Bashar al-Assad since entering the war in 2015.

Ukraine update: No, media, it’s not a ‘strategic pause’ anymore, Russia is just stuck

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This map shows us the gains by each side in the last seven days. Red are Russian gains, blue are Ukrainian gains. 

If you’re wondering, yeah, that’s pretty much nothing. Russia consolidated some territory northwest of Kyiv, while Ukraine pushed Russia out of western Kyiv suburbs. There were offensives reported there last few days, and looks like they did good work—important because it pushes Russia outside of artillery range of central Kyiv.

News Roundup: More GOP voter fraud; a win for the environment; SCOTUS fights off Republican racism

Hello all you Friday folks. It’s been another week following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Whether or not a peace can be negotiated in the near future remains to be seen. At the same time, the Biden administration got some good news about the tools with which they hope to create better environmental policy, but also continue to feel the well-deserved pressure to get more done from Democratic officials facing upcoming elections.

Even Republicans are pointing out that Madison Cawthorn’s anti-Ukraine rants are a bad look

On Thursday, the House voted 424-8 to suspend normal trade relations with Russia in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. Congress rarely achieves that kind of consensus on anything, unless the vote is for not telling Ted Cruz about the weekly after-work happy hour, but Ukraine’s plight has united Americans—on both sides of the aisle—like nothing else in years.

Biden administration releases orphaned well guidance in bid to address rampant methane emissions

The Biden administration on Thursday released its draft guidance on addressing the more than 130,000 orphaned oil wells across the country—a number the government admits reflects a massive undercounting of wells whose former operators cannot be located. The guidance includes what is required when states apply for initial grants, such as detailed budget proposals and disclosure of any lobbying activities, along with best practices like state plugging standards.

It’s a Great Time to Hoard Nickels

In economic-speak, the Ukraine crisis has been a “supply shock.” In English, that means that in the United States you’ll now find record-high gas prices, liquor stores devoid of Russian vodka, and … uhh … Americans heading into their local banks and politely asking for hundreds of dollars in nickels.Let me explain.

Party for The Drift, a Cool New Magazine

Sign up for Kaitlyn and Lizzie’s newsletter here.Kaitlyn: Being a hater takes years off of your life, so it’s better to try to be a fan. When I first heard about The Drift, the new magazine for young intellectuals, I had a knee-jerk negative reaction due to internship trauma—in 2014, I worked hundreds of unpaid hours for another magazine that was going to breathe life back into American political and literary discourse, but turned out to be a ridiculous operation run by jerks.

The Legend of Charli XCX Grows

The Atlantic’s style guide for writers bans the use of the word iconic, as it does many other words that are overused to the point of meaninglessness. So it will be hard for me to write about the delightful new Charli XCX album, Crash, at least judging by how the artist and her fans have been speaking. The term has shown up in press releases and tweets to refer to the singer, her planned tour, her album’s track list, and the Nintendo ad she soundtracked.

Literature Isn’t Bound by the Rules of Time

Humans can move through time in only one way: forward, second by second, even when we set the clocks ahead an hour. But literature isn’t bound by the same rules. When narratives take place in the past or future, transporting the reader to the scene of events that already occurred or are expected to happen, that’s a kind of time travel exclusive to storytelling. For example, a Nomi Stone poem about cleaning mussels begins in the present, as the speaker prepares a meal.

Raj Patel: Global South Faces Brunt of Soaring Food Prices Amid War in Ukraine, World’s “Breadbasket”

The United Nations is warning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a “hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system” that would be especially devastating for the Global South. Wheat and fertilizer prices have soared since the war began three weeks ago. Global food prices could jump by as much as 22% this year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupts exports from two of the world’s largest producers of wheat and fertilizer.