Today's Liberal News

“Tightening the Chokehold”: Amjad Iraqi on Israel’s Plans to “Empty Out” Gaza and Annex West Bank

Israel’s security cabinet is considering plans to expand Israel’s assault on Gaza toward a full military takeover, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly pushing for a monthslong offensive on Gaza City and central Gaza refugee camps. The cabinet meeting comes as Israel’s forced starvation of Gaza claimed at least four new victims over the past 24 hours, according to health officials.

From India to Brazil, Trump Intensifies Trade War Against BRICS Nations as New Tariffs Take Effect

Huge tariffs on more than 90 countries took effect shortly after midnight on Thursday. President Trump slapped one of the highest tariff rates of 50% on India — set to go into effect on August 27 — unless India stops buying Russian oil. Democracy Now! speaks with Jayati Ghosh, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on the hypocrisy of the tariffs.

“War in Perpetuity”: M. Gessen Warns Putin Won’t Make Peace with Ukraine Because It Risks His Own Survival

White House officials have confirmed that President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet as early as next week to discuss the war in Ukraine. It would be the first U.S.-Russia summit in more than four years. Trump reportedly plans to follow up that meeting with another three-way meeting between himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We speak with The New York Times opinion columnist M.

Texas Showdown: Dem. Lawmakers Flee State to Stop Gerrymandering, Warn Trump Will Try It Again

More than 50 Democrats in the Texas Legislature have left the state to block the passage of a new congressional map, which was gerrymandered to give Republicans five extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The new map would especially harm Latino and Black representation in Congress, but President Trump is pushing for it in order to retain a Republican majority in the 2026 midterm election. “Texas is essentially just going to be the guinea pig.

Donald Trump Doesn’t Want You to Read This Article

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Donald Trump doesn’t want you to read this article.
Don’t let it go to your head, and I won’t let it go to mine; we’re not special. He doesn’t want anyone reading anything about Jeffrey Epstein, or his own relationship with the late sex offender.

How Democrats Tied Their Own Hands on Redistricting

As New York Governor Kathy Hochul denounced the GOP’s aggressive attempt to gerrymander Democrats into political oblivion this week, she lamented her party’s built-in disadvantage. “I’m tired of fighting this fight with my hand tied behind my back,” she told reporters.
As political metaphors go, it’s not a bad one. Hochul omitted a key detail, however: Democrats provided the rope themselves. For more than a decade, they’ve tried to be the party of good government on redistricting.

The War Over America’s Birthday Party

President Donald Trump’s attempted takeover of America’s 250th-anniversary celebration began this past spring when his team drew up a $33 million fundraising plan for a series of events starring the president, including a military parade in Washington. America250 had been founded by Congress as a bipartisan effort, with a mission to engage “350 million Americans for the 250th.

How Many Times Can Science Funding Be Canceled?

Last week, the National Institutes of Health finally got some good news. A Senate subcommittee voted, with support from both parties, to increase the agency’s $48 billion budget—a direct rebuke to the Trump administration’s proposed budget, which would have slashed the agency’s funding some 40 percent.

Enough With the Mom Guilt Already

The other day, I came across a video of a psychotherapist in training acting out a scene of a distracted mother ignoring her child. “Hey, Mom, can you play with me?” the therapist asks, mimicking the kid. “Not now,” she responds as the mom, gripping her phone. “I’m busy.” The therapist warns that the “unavailable mother” can create lasting “insecure attachment,” potentially relegating a child to a future of anxiety, self-doubt, and dysfunctional relationships.

80 Years After Hiroshima & Nagasaki, U.S. Keeps Covering Up Horrors of Atomic Bombing: Greg Mitchell

This week marks 80 years since the first use of nuclear weapons in war, when the United States dropped a pair of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in the bombings. Many died instantly, and many others died more slowly from severe burns and radiation sickness. Some estimates put the combined death toll over 250,000 killed.