Western Officials Pledge To Support Ukraine As Russia Says It Should Be Dismembered
Faced with a Russian attempt to redraw borders in Europe, the U.S. is preparing sanctions and European allies are signaling solidarity with the government in Kiev.
Today's Liberal News
Vladimir Putin’s Hall of Mirrors
Vladimir Putin likes to associate today’s Russian Federation with the old Russian empire, and in one sense he is right. The Russian empire was the most repressive state of its era, with the most refined state police: the Okhrana. Russian revolutionaries, the men and women who would establish the Soviet state, were educated by its methods. It did not simply hunt them down; it ensnared them, often without their knowledge, in a complicated dance of incriminating their comrades.
Canadian Official Schools Truckers On How Their Protests Aren’t About Freedom
“A blockade is not freedom; it blocks the liberty of all,” tweeted Bob Rae, Canada’s representative to the United Nations.
“Who Killed Our Father?”: 57 Years After Malcolm X Assassination, Family Wants Fed Probe into Cover-Up
On the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, we speak with the civil rights leader’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz about her family’s call for a federal probe into his murder, following the exoneration of two men who were wrongfully convicted. “We want to know who killed our father, and we want to make sure that it is properly recorded in history,” says Shabazz.
Ben Crump on Fighting for Justice for Daunte Wright, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin & Z’Kye Husain
Former Minneapolis police officer Kim Potter was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday for fatally shooting Black driver Daunte Wright after mistaking her gun for a Taser. We speak to Benjamin Crump, attorney for the Wright family, about Judge Regina Chu’s sympathy expressed for Potter during closing statements and how white criminals tend to receive lighter sentences. “Police officers, when it comes to Black people, they always do the most,” says Crump.
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Smart Diplomacy Can Still Resolve the Ukraine Crisis Without War
As President Biden warns of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, France has secured a commitment from both Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet at a summit in an effort to defuse the escalating tension. We speak to veteran journalist Katrina vanden Heuvel, whose latest article for The Washington Post, “A path out of the Ukraine crisis,” argues both leaders must work to avoid a catastrophic war.
What Love Meant in 4500 B.C.
What is love? Reader, don’t hurt me. Just etymologically. I’ll try.It may be the slipperiest word in the English language. We are constantly asserting its meaning and renegotiating its definition, especially in pop culture.
Saying Goodbye to My Childhood Friend Arthur
In the household where I was raised, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” often felt like the highest commandment. My grandmother, who worked as a nurse on Rikers Island at the peak of the AIDS crisis, fashioned our home in Queens as a place where everyone was welcome. Patriarchs played dominoes in the den and neighbors swung by to say hi. Reggae blasted from our dusty record player while church sermons competed from the kitchen radio.
Bill Gates says there’s a better way to fight Covid, future pandemics
In interview with POLITICO, the billionaire philanthropist lays out a battle plan that goes beyond responding to the coronavirus.
Nowhere is safe: Record number of patients contracted Covid in the hospital in January
More hospital patients contracted Covid-19 last month than at any point of the pandemic, a POLITICO analysis of federal health data shows.
Biden officials ask Congress for $5B in global Covid funds
USAID told lawmakers earlier this month, however, that they needed several times that amount.
Biden wants billions more in Covid funding. Lawmakers aren’t eager to spend big — again.
Even Democrats who support the additional public health funds worry the effort could derail the fragile negotiations on the core bill to fund the government.
Biden’s new global vaccine push is running out of funds
The president’s team is putting the world vaccination effort at the center of its Covid-19 strategy. But it lacks the money to pay for it.
Putin Has Made America Great Again
Donald Trump was supposed to have changed the world, robbing America not just of its luster but of its allies’ trust. Here was a president of such gauche ignorance and hostility, it seemed impossible that American power would ever be seen in the same light again. For Europe, in particular, Trump’s jingoistic belligerence was poised to be an adrenaline shot to the heart, Pulp Fiction–style, jolting the continent out of its American dependency.
Biden takes victory lap with January jobs report
“America’s job machine is going stronger than ever,” Biden said at the White House.
U.S. employers shrug off Omicron, add 467,000 jobs in January
The burst of jobs came despite a wave of Omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.
Opinion | Why Are Minority-Owned Banks Disappearing? Washington Holds the Smoking Gun
Congress needs to create a new safety net for such lenders — not let regulators squeeze them out of business.
Biden’s first year: A tale of 2 presidencies
Inside the White House, there is still optimism: “President Biden was elected to a four-year term, not a one-year term.
Price spikes threaten to ground Biden’s big-spending plans
The government reported Wednesday that the consumer price index, the most widely watched gauge of inflation, hit a four-decade high in December compared to the previous year.
Filmmaker Stanley Nelson on Police Brutality, Black History & His First Oscar Nomination for “Attica”
Legendary filmmaker Stanley Nelson’s new documentary “Attica” has been nominated for the first Oscar in his three-decades-long career documenting the Black American experience. The film tells the story of the deadliest prison uprising in U.S.
Wave of Bomb Threats Terrorizing Historically Black Colleges Continues During Black History Month
The House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security heard testimony Thursday about a wave of bomb threats against historically Black colleges and universities, including more than a dozen this month alone. February is Black History Month. More than 60 educational groups called on Congress this week to take immediate steps to support and protect HBCUs.
A Call for Peace: Russian & U.S. Women Push for Diplomacy, Not Military Action, to Resolve Crisis
U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have agreed to meet next week as tension remains high over Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia has announced plans to stage massive drills on Saturday of its nuclear forces, including multiple practice missile launches. We speak with Russian journalist Nadezhda Azhgikhina, one of a group of two dozen independent Russian and American women who released an open letter this week calling for peace.
Ethiopia: Amnesty Accuses Tigrayan Forces of Rape & Murder in Latest Probe of War Crimes in Conflict
Amnesty International is accusing Tigrayan forces of deliberately killing dozens of unarmed civilians and gang-raping dozens of women and girls in the northern Amhara region of Ethiopia. This comes as the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebel forces remain at war, and just last year Amnesty similarly accused the Ethiopian government of subjecting Tigrayan women and girls to rape, gang rape, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation and other forms of torture.
Twitter Users Spit Trump ‘Truths’ After News About His Imminent App Launch
Trump’s social media platform, “Truth Social,” is reportedly set to roll out on Apple’s App Store this week.
’60 Minutes’ Releases Eerie ‘Havana Syndrome’ Audio After White House Incidents
Several cases of the mysterious condition have now taken place in Washington, according to CBS News.
Now Trump Says His Accounting Firm Was ‘Broken’ By ‘Radical Leftist’ Racists
That’s not what the accounting firm says.
GOP House Candidate Says College Turns Young People Into Leftists Who Hate America
Christian Collins has the support of far-right Republicans including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn.
There Are No Chamberlains in This Story
In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arrived home from a conference in Munich. He and other leaders had met with Hitler; they had agreed to allow the German army to annex a slice of Czechoslovakia; in exchange, Hitler offered more dialogue, and promised not to fight any further. To the cheering crowd who gathered to welcome his plane, Chamberlain happily declared that the threat of war had passed: He had obtained “peace with honour….peace for our time.
Mexican Officials Fire Back At Ted Cruz After Criticism
The Mexican ambassador to the U.S. said that at least its political candidates concede when they lose elections.
From a Window
Illustrations by Miki LoweThe poet Christian Wiman grew up in a Baptist household but progressively strayed from his religion—until he was in his late 30s. At that point, two life-changing events rocked him back to Christianity: He was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer, and he fell in love.Having known agnosticism and faith alike, Wiman understands how absurdly irrational religious belief can seem—and also how such irrationality is insufficient to refute a higher being.