Today's Liberal News

Pastor and founder of Christian school arrested for taping kids’ mouths shut as form of ‘discipline’

Pastor John Raymond, a one-time Survivor contestant and former Republican candidate for the Louisiana House, was arrested last week and charged with three counts of cruelty to juveniles after taping children’s mouths shut for talking too much in class, The Washington Post reported. The incident took place on March 17, but Raymond was not arrested until Thursday after police investigated the issue and he turned himself in.

Happy Tax Season, Crypto Bros

Ever since the NFT boom began last year, non-fungible tokens—the blockchain-linked digital files that can contain, well, anything—have escaped easy definition. After an artist working under the name Beeple sold a piece of NFT artwork for $69 million at auction last March, pieces as varied as concert tickets and pictures of ape heads started trading for sums that would fetch houses.

Nine Books That Came to Fame Slowly

Haruki Murakami’s fifth book, Norwegian Wood, was a sensation in Japan when it was first released in 1987. Despite its success, it wasn’t widely available in English until 2000. The gap between its publication and its popular translation is surprising in hindsight, but few people outside the author’s home country had heard of him until the later English releases of some of his other works.

These Dreadful Days

Sign up for Molly’s newsletter, Wait, What?, here.“We probably didn’t get COVID in there,” I said to my two doctor friends, grimacing as we put on our masks to board the elevator after a party for parents of kids attending my daughter’s school, where we’d been maskless. Most people I know are vaccinated, and many of them had Omicron in December when seemingly everyone in New York City got Omicron.

Among Europe’s Ex-Royals

Photographs by Jelka von LangenOne peculiarity of European aristocrats is that their names pile up, like snowdrifts. It’s lunchtime in Tirana, the capital of Albania, and I am about to meet Leka Anwar Zog Reza Baudouin Msiziwe Zogu, crown prince of the Albanians.The Albanian royal residence is easy to miss, tucked away on a quiet side street behind the national art museum.

Yemen Peace Deal “Positive Development” as Port Reopens, But Houthis Excluded from Talks

A U.N.-brokered two-month truce in Yemen is now in its second week. The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels both agreed to halt all offensive operations inside Yemen and across its borders. Fuel ships are now being allowed to enter into Hodeidah ports, and the airport in Sana’a is reopening. Over the past six years, the U.N. estimates the war in Yemen has killed nearly 400,000 people — many from hunger.

Lev Golinkin on Russia’s New Offensive & War Crimes in the Donbas by Both Sides over Past 8 Years

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he fears Russian President Vladimir Putin will intensify the brutality of the war, as Russia prepares to launch a major offensive in eastern Ukraine, after the two leaders met on Monday. This comes as thousands of Ukrainians continue to flee the eastern region, though many are afraid to leave by train after a missile attack on a train station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed at least 57 people on Saturday.