Today's Liberal News

Photos: The Year in Volcanic Activity

Gary Miller / Getty
People watch as Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano erupts on May 11, 2025.Gary Miller / Getty
A closer view of Kīlauea volcano erupting in Hawaii on May 11, 2025Arnold Welianto / AFP / Getty
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupts, pictured from Pululera village, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, on August 18, 2025.AFP / Getty
A villager watches the eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki from Talibura village in Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, on June 17, 2025.

Why the Supreme Court Is Giving ICE So Much Power

Untold numbers of ICE agents have appeared on America’s streets in recent months, and many of them have committed acts of aggression with seeming impunity. ICE agents have detained suspected illegal immigrants without cause—including U.S. citizens and lawful residents. They have, in effect, kidnapped people, breaking into cars to make arrests. They have used tear gas and pepper spray on nonviolent protesters.

Mary Todd Lincoln, Taken Out of Context

By now, you will be used to the feminist practice of finding a historical woman and rescuing her from the clutches of evil biographers who have done her dirty. What if Marie Antoinette or Typhoid Mary were a more rounded figure—more constrained by the expectations of her time, perhaps, or a victim of her circumstances and upbringing?
That is not the approach that the playwright Cole Escola has taken in Oh, Mary!, which is currently playing on Broadway and has just opened in London.

Remembering Bill Moyers: PBS Icon on Corruption of Corporate Media and Power of Public Broadcasting

The legendary journalist Bill Moyers died in June at the age of 91. Moyers, whose long career included helping found the Peace Corps and serving as press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, was an award-winning champion of public television and independent media. We feature one of his numerous interviews on Democracy Now!, where we discussed the history of public broadcasting in the United States and the powerful role of money in corporate media.

A Tribute to Blacklisted Lyricist Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz

His name might not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world. Today, we take a journey through the life and work of Yip Harburg, the Broadway lyricist who wrote such hits as “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” and who put the music into The Wizard of Oz, the movie that inspired the hit Broadway musical and now Hollywood blockbuster, Wicked.

The Sad Dads of Hollywood

If you went to the movies this fall, you probably met him: the Sad Art Dad. You’ll have known him by his miserableness; despite the flash of the cameras and the cheers of the groundlings, he’s most often found moping alone. His vocation may vary—movie star (in Jay Kelly), art-house director (Sentimental Value), blockbuster Tudor playwright (Hamnet)—but his problem tends to be the same. He has chosen great art over good parenting, utterly failing as a father, and he knows it.

North Road, Fall 2020

The vandals came at night
Tarring the asphalt with the coward’s color.
Their message—candidate and date—
Reading both ways, at the bend in our road.
The town’s crew tried twice to cover it,
But the words bled through, defiant.
We troubled ourselves and argued for a response:
To stomp on it, to jump over, or go around.
We went around—in every season,
For five years,
The yellow fading, the outrage permanent,
The scar invading each day’s promise.