Today's Liberal News

How Britain Wants to Rebuild the World

With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces bogged down in Ukraine, apparently unable to defeat one of the poorest nations in Europe, and China locking up millions of people in a seemingly never-ending battle to contain COVID-19, the once-ubiquitous idea of inevitable Western decline has suddenly been called into question. Out of nowhere, the free world once again stands for something, and is even showing signs of shaking itself out of its decades-long torpor.

Ukraine update: The race for the last bridge over the Siverskyi Donets

When I first wrote about the town of Popasna on April 16, I had absolutely no idea that this was an important military stronghold for Ukraine, or that it would become the focus of Russian attention for the following month. I stumbled across the town in a list of locations, looked it up where everyone looks things up—Wikipedia—and realized it had an interesting history.

Supreme Court in disarray: New leaks reveal Roberts’ own preferred Roe reversal

There’s now another big leak from The United States Supreme Court, and this one’s being unapologetically linked to the court’s conservative wing. The Washington Post has a new story in which multiple sources describe how Chief Justice John Roberts was planning to further carve away at Roe v. Wade by giving the court’s approval to the Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks, but wanted to dodge overturning Roe completely.

Nuts & Bolts a guide to Democratic campaigns: Choice is an issue on every single ballot

Welcome back to the Nuts & Bolts guide to campaigns. This week I want to talk about issues, and why steering away from some out of fear is just bad, bad campaigning. If you haven’t guessed, I want to talk about the importance of being willing to discuss, and own, pro-choice positions in your campaign. Too often, candidates get trapped into the idea that they need to “hold back” because Republicans will tag them or that it will hurt their campaign.

SNL’s Sharp, Frustrated Take on Abortion Rights

In seeking historical precedence for the upcoming Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito stretched far beyond the ideology of originalism—the guiding precept among a certain conservative faction that constitutional law should not stray far from the Constitution.

Why the Puzzle-Box Sci-Fi of Severance Works

At a time when the American office is anywhere a Zoom window can be opened, the notion of truly separating work and home is an alluring one. Take that thought to its furthest extreme and you have the Apple TV+ thriller Severance.

In the Hospital Rooms of My Country

Translated by Ilya Kaminsky and Katie FarrisLetters of the alphabet go to war
clinging to one another, standing up, forming words no one wants to shout,
sentences that are blown by the mines in the avenues, stories
shelled by multiple rocket launches.A Ukrainian word
is ambushed: Through the broken window of
the letter д other countries watch how the letter і
loses its head, how the roof of the letter м
falls through.The language in a time of war
can’t be understood.

To Create Art, a Mother Must Forget About Her Children

While still a student in the late 1960s, the artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, pregnant with her first child, encountered a famous sculptor. She recalls him declaring, upon seeing her round belly, “Well, I guess now you can’t be an artist.” He wasn’t, she later realized, entirely wrong; once she had a baby, Ukeles found herself trapped in the kind of mindless automated work that defines early motherhood—bottle, diaper, rock, repeat.

“I Was Raped by My Father. Abortion Saved My Life”: Prof. Michele Goodwin on SCOTUS & the New Jane Crow

As the Supreme Court is poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, we speak with law professor Michele Goodwin, who has written extensively about how the criminalization of abortion polices motherhood. She discusses how on the eve of the court’s oral arguments in the Dobbs case in November, she wrote about how an abortion saved her life. She describes how the U.S.

Premature “Normalcy” Could Backfire as U.S. COVID Death Toll Passes 1 Million & New Variants Spread

Governments around the world are eagerly returning back to pre-pandemic conditions by relaxing preventative restrictions, lifting mask mandates and pulling back public funding. Dr. Abraar Karan, infectious disease fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine, says these moves are overly optimistic and that the U.S. is not prepared for new variants spreading around the country. “We’re trying to say it’s over. It’s not true,” he says.

Historian Timothy Snyder: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Is a Colonial War

We speak to Yale University historian Timothy Snyder about his latest article for The New Yorker, “The War in Ukraine Is a Colonial War.” Snyder writes about the colonial history that laid the foundations for the Russian war in Ukraine, such as Russia’s imperial vision and how leaders including Hitler and Stalin have aimed to conquer Ukrainian soil on different premises. “The whole history of colonialism … involves denying that another people is real.

Where the Language of Democracy Is a Cover

On Friday afternoon, supporters of John Lee gathered for what his adviser described as a preelection rally, a final push in Lee’s campaign to secure victory in the election to be Hong Kong’s next chief executive.Don’t let the vocabulary fool you. No members of the general public attended Lee’s event, a stage-managed flourish to a weeks-long show masquerading as a contest.