Today's Liberal News

Donald Trump loses again as Omarosa wins $1.3M judgment against his campaign

Omarosa Manigault Newman is best known for being Omarosa. Omarosa is best known for being a pretty wretched reality television star who rose to a form of celebrity during her many appearances on The Apprentice, hosted by disgraced president Donald Trump. When Trump won the electoral college vote in 2016, Omarosa ended up becoming one of the myriad White House aides to subsequently find themselves pushed out of a job in the following weeks and months.

I Went Surfing in an Office Park

When I felt the wave lift my board and push it forward, I knew exactly what to do. I stood up, turned left, and put my weight forward to shred the surf. If this were San Diego, where I’d just been surfing, I’d see the sun rise over the beach. Instead I saw two gated hot tubs, a row of private cabanas ($370 for the day), and a photo booth selling pics for $15 a piece.This is Urbnsurf, an artificial wave lagoon roughly 10 minutes from Melbourne Airport.

The Cutest Thermonuclear Explosion in the Universe

The first known record of an exploding star comes from Chinese astronomers in the second century. A radiant object, bursting with color, appeared suddenly in the night sky and glowed for about eight months before fading away. In the 11th century, the glow of an exploding star hung around for two whole years, appearing brighter than the moon in the beginning.

As Russia Intensifies Attack on Ukraine’s Donbas, Volunteers Try to Help Civilians in Leveled Cities

We get an update on the Donbas region of Ukraine, where Russian forces are now focused. Russia has backed a separatist movement in the Donbas since 2014 and used protecting the Russian-speaking population there as a justification for its invasion in February. We speak with Brian Milakovsky, who lived in the Donbas town of Severodonetsk before he evacuated to Croatia in January and is now fundraising for people trying to flee Russian attacks.

The Punt Presidency

At the start of his career, Joe Biden was a young man in a hurry: the sixth-youngest senator, an ambitious force in Washington, and a repeat presidential candidate. Now, at the pinnacle and close of his career, the president prefers to procrastinate.Although every leader comes to a decision he or she would rather not make, delay has become a signature tactic of this presidency.

Matrix of War: Russian Elites Unlikely to Split from Putin Despite War Losses & Western Sanctions

Russians are weathering the fallout of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with no sign of a negotiated peace deal soon. Economic sanctions have driven up food prices, and there has been repression of political dissent within the country. We speak with author Tony Wood, a member of the New Left Review editorial board, who says the crushing Western sanctions are unlikely to end Putin’s rule and are only hardening attitudes.

Free Alaa Abd El-Fattah: Meet Sanaa Seif, Just Out of Prison, Calling on Egypt to Release Her Brother

Calls are growing for the release of imprisoned Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who launched a hunger strike on April 2 to protest the harsh conditions he is held under at Cairo’s Tora prison. Abd El-Fattah, who became a leading voice of the Arab Spring revolution, has been in and out of prison for nearly a decade for his human rights activism. His family recently obtained U.K.

Ukraine update: Experts keep waiting for Russia to show competence, but it still isn’t happening

With the ubiquity of smartphones, the on-the-ground details of Russia’s war against Ukraine have been more closely documented than any war. The footage is omnipresent, even allowing independent observers to make detailed catalogs of destroyed equipment. The movement of Russian troops is being tracked by satellite, as well as by pinging electronic devices they have stolen and taken with them. We can hear individual conversations between Russian soldiers and their families.

Ukraine update: The heavy weapons spigot has finally opened for Ukraine

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: 

“I like new questions,” he said. “It’s not interesting to answer the questions you already heard.” He is frustrated, for instance, by repeated requests for his wish list of weapons systems. “When some leaders ask me what weapons I need, I need a moment to calm myself, because I already told them the week before. It’s Groundhog Day. I feel like Bill Murray.

Without federal voting protections, many look to states as the ‘laboratories of democracy’

by Frances Nguyen

This article was originally published at Prism

The night before the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol, Virginia state Sen. Jennifer McClellan came across an envelope tucked inside her father’s Bible. Inside was a receipt for $2.12: the poll tax her father paid in 1948 to vote in Tennessee, a financial barrier meant to exclude Black voters in the decades after Reconstruction.

Biden administration expands Ukrainian TPS eligibility to thousands more people

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it is changing the cutoff date for Ukrainian Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a welcomed decision that stands to greatly increase the number of immigrants eligible for relief.

The Biden administration initially announced that Ukrainian immigrants who are already in the U.S. as of March 1 would be eligible to apply. But this week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced a new eligibility date of April 11.