Today's Liberal News

Ricardo Alarcón, Longtime Cuban Diplomat, Dies at Age 84

Longtime Cuban diplomat Ricardo Alarcón died on Sunday at the age of 84. He was a student leader during the Cuban revolution who eventually became Cuba’s foreign minister and president of the National Assembly, Cuba’s parliament. He played a key role in talks between the United States and Cuba for many years. Democracy Now! spoke to Alarcón in 2015 as the Cuban Embassy reopened in Washington for the first time in 54 years.

The Art of the Dealer

Long ago, before J.D. Vance started doing his best to sound like every other MAGA candidate in the country, he had an ear for a metaphor.Reflecting on how heroin and prescription opioids had ravaged his home state of Ohio, Vance worried that a certain Republican candidate for president would have a similar effect. “[Donald] Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit.

Ukraine Update: Russia vowed to refocus its war effort, but it’s as scattered as ever

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Mark Sumner wrote earlier today about the incredible shrinking Russian army. It’s an important read, as it explains why Russia is stuck on all fronts in Ukraine despite having a seemingly overwhelming numerical and equipment advantage. The bottom line, as it turns out, is that Russia doesn’t have a numerical and equipment advantage. 

Russia didn’t gain any ground today, anywhere. They are stuck stuck.

News Update: A Supreme Court leak signals the end of abortion rights in America

The Supreme Court leak of the draft opinion meant to erase abortion rights in this country rocked Washington, D.C., and the rest of the country, but for two different reasons. Most of the public strongly supports abortion rights and public fury is already rising as Americans learn of the planned decision and its Alito-written justification; most Republican lawmakers are in an absolute froth over the opinion being leaked before the Supreme Court revealed it publicly.

Trump-endorsed rich guy J.D. Vance wins massively expensive Ohio Senate primary

The Republican primary for Ohio’s open Senate seat—which weighed in at nearly $75 million—finally concluded on Tuesday with a win for Trump’s endorsed candidate, venture capitalist J.D. Vance. Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author and one-time vociferous Trump critic, reinvented himself as a MAGA diehard and defeated former state Treasurer Josh Mandel 31-25 for the nod to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman. Vance will take on Democratic Rep.

Mexico to reroute trade railway connection from Texas to New Mexico due to Abbott’s $4 billion stunt

Mexico has been planning a trade railway that spans thousands of miles from Mazatlán to Winnipeg, with a connection in Texas. But while the T-MEC Corridor railway connecting the two nations is still happening, the stop in Texas is not.

Mexican officials have now decided to instead reroute the line through New Mexico, The Dallas Morning News reports. It’s a major loss for Texas, because border states thrive and depend on international trade.

Alito’s Plan to Repeal the 20th Century

If you are an American with a young daughter, she will grow up in a world without the right to choose when and where she gives birth, and in which nothing restrains a state from declaring her womb its property, with all the invasive authorities that implies.That is the significance of the draft Supreme Court opinion leaked to Politico, which shows that the right-wing majority on the Court intends to discard Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v.

My Mother Was Wrong

Sign up for Molly’s newsletter, Wait, What?, here.We may have made a lot of mistakes, but at least we gave you Roe. I can’t even count the number of times my mother said some version of this to me. It was her way of explaining an earlier generation’s approach to feminism, and what she would say to me when she was trying to make sense of her own legacy. Maybe it wasn’t a normal thing for a mother to say to a daughter, but my mother isn’t a normal mother.

Please Ignore My Last 577 Tweets

Updated at 5:38 p.m. on May 3, 2022.If you had told me last Wednesday afternoon, when my Twitter account had a grand total of three tweets and 200-something followers, that roughly 24 hours later the account would have tweeted 577 times and boosted its follower count to 42,000, I would not have believed you.

The New Doctor Strange Is Not Just Another Marvel Movie

The last time Sam Raimi made a comic-book movie, nobody had ever heard of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That film was Spider-Man 3, in 2007, the final entry in his trilogy of adventures starring Tobey Maguire as the hero. It seemed like a story at war with itself; the director’s earnest zaniness was bumping up against studio demands for more villains, more plot twists, and more money on the screen. It was a box-office success but underwhelmed critics.

The End of Roe v. Wade: Leaked Opinion Shows Supreme Court Is Set to Overturn Abortion Rights

The Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a leaked draft opinion published by Politico. In it, Justice Samuel Alito writes for the majority that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.” We speak to two reproductive rights advocates: attorney Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert, who argued the landmark 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey case, and law professor Michele Goodwin, author of “Policing the Womb.