Today's Liberal News

Ukraine update: The one corner of Ukraine where Russian forces are still (barely) on the attack

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With Ukraine moving forward on multiple fronts, I scoured recent Ukraine General Staff reports to see if Russia was still managing any offensive actions. Turns out that yes, but just a few. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the same town names popped up: 

During the current day, units of the Defense Forces repelled enemy attacks in the areas of the settlements of Bakhmut, Zaitseve, Pervomaiske, Mykolayivka Druga and Novomykhailivka.

Mark Meadows claimed boxes held at Mar-a-Lago contained only ‘news clippings’

With every new revelation out of the Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago scandal, his theft of highly classified documents becomes even more blatant. And the idea that anyone—from a judge to Republicans in Congress—is still engaged in the pretense that what Trump did was no big deal, becomes ever more ridiculous.

On Friday evening, The Washington Post reported a new aspect to the Doc-a-Lago affair.

Victory Brings Its Own Dangers

Last weekend I was in Kyiv, where European, American, and Ukrainian officials were mingling with journalists and policy experts at the Yalta European Strategy conference. With Ukrainian troops liberating Izium, Balakliya, and other northeastern towns, the atmosphere was triumphant.

Hens

For millennia, poets have tried to describe the animals in their lives. Some of the most famous verses concern a particular creature—wild or adorable or filthy or dignified—closely observed. Take Elizabeth Bishop detailing the shallow, yellowed eyes of her caught fish; Mary Oliver looking up at wild geese sweeping across the sky; D. H. Lawrence tenderly cheering on a baby tortoise, “a tiny, fragile, half-animate bean.

Has Trumpism Run Out of Steam?

JAY, Maine—Services at the New Life Baptist Church had just wrapped up, and in the parking lot outside its tiny chapel, Paul LePage was standing behind me with his arm wrapped around my head. He held a cellphone inches from my face, as if he were filming an extreme close-up.

Private Religious Schools Have Public Responsibilities Too

Is it permissible for private schools in this country to disregard state standards of proficiency in English, math, and U.S. history? This is the question at the heart of a recent wide-ranging investigative report from The New York Times. The article focuses on the Hasidic educational system in New York, whose students almost uniformly fail state standardized tests in reading and math.

The Hobbit King

The Queen is dead. Long live the King. How strange this process, how archaic and theatrical, moving and melancholy, mixing the worlds of King Arthur and Netflix. We are often told that it is this connection to the deep past that gives monarchy its meaning. But as the world prepares for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London tomorrow, the unchanging continuity is less significant than the subtle evolution of the nation that it conceals.

“The Myth of Normal”: Dr. Gabor Maté on Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

In an extended interview, acclaimed physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté discusses his new book, just out, called “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture.” “The very values of a society are traumatizing for a lot of people,” says Maté, who argues in his book that “psychological trauma, woundedness, underlies much of what we call disease.

“Infuriating”: A Third of Pakistan Is Underwater. Calls Grow for Climate Reparations and Debt Cancellation

Nearly 1,500 people have died and tens of millions have been displaced in Pakistan, where catastrophic flooding has left a third of the country underwater, washing away homes, farmlands, bridges, hospitals and schools. “People have lost everything,” says Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a Pakistani artist and the grandson of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

“In the Shadow of Invasion”: Artist Molly Crabapple & Ukrainian Journalist Anna Grechishkina Document Ukraine War

Ukraine has accused Russia of bombing a dam in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih — where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was born — forcing evacuation in parts of the city due to flooding. The bombing is the latest Russian attack on civilain infrastructure since Ukrainian forces recaptured over 3,000 square miles of territory from Russia during a counteroffensive this past week.

Daily Kos Elections announces publication of 2020 presidential results for new House districts

Daily Kos Elections is pleased to announce the completion of its project to calculate the results of the 2020 presidential election for each of the nation’s new congressional districts that will be used for the first time in the November midterms. These results reflect how the previous election would have played out under the new districts created as a result of the decennial redistricting process.

Anti-drag harassment continues across the country

This article was originally published at Prism

Drag performers and drag events have been under attack since Texas, Florida, and Arizona lawmakers moved to ban youth-friendly drag programming earlier this year. In recent months, at least a dozen drag events have caused outrage beyond Texas and Florida, whose governors are known for restrictive and punitive laws. In June, the Proud Boys stormed a San Lorenzo, California, library hosting a Drag Queen Story Hour event.