Today's Liberal News

Dept. of Homeland Security Ramps Up Efforts to Police Online Speech on Ukraine, COVID & Afghanistan

Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal the Department of Homeland Security is working with private tech companies to fight online speech that undermines support for the U.S. government. We speak to one of the co-authors of The Intercept’s report, investigative journalist Lee Fang, who says the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump expanded the government’s power to reshape online discourse.

Meet the New Yorkers Welcoming Asylum Seekers Bused to City After Hostile Reception at U.S. Border

As thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive on buses in New York, we speak with a man from Venezuela about his journey, and two New Yorkers who have been helping since August to welcome them with dignity and ensure they get the housing, food and other assistance they need. “The system here in New York City is not created for this type of community, which is the migrants that are arriving,” says former asylum seeker, Adama Bah.

From Terrorist Backer to Kingmaker: Itamar Ben-Gvir & Israeli Far Right Help Netanyahu Regain Power

Benjamin Netanyahu is set to return as Israel’s prime minister, with Tuesday’s election results showing his Likud Party and far-right allies winning enough seats to form a parliamentary majority. This includes far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, who openly supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, vows to crack down on the LGBTQ community and was once convicted of racist incitement against Arabs.

Tigray Peace Deal: Surprise Agreement Ends Two Years of Civil War in Ethiopia, Brings “Big Relief”

The Ethiopian government and forces in Tigray have reached a truce to end two years of brutal civil war. The new peace deal follows a week of peace talks mediated by the African Union in South Africa. The Ethiopian government wants a unified country and Tigrayans want minoritarian rights upheld, says Adebayo Olukoshi, distinguished research professor at the Wits School of Governance who formerly worked on peace efforts in Tigray with the International IDEA.

Ukraine update: Russian naval infantry decimated at Pavlivka in stunning defeat

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We haven’t talked much about Pavlivka before (prewar population: 1,000). 

Pavlivka is located in a grinding part of the front. Russia has occupied the purple territory on this map since 2014, so you can see the general lack of progress pushing westward since the war began. Most of those red gains have come from the south, up from Mariupol.

Many male pundits say the abortion issue has faded. Maybe they’re just dim

When the GOP-packed Supreme Court first overturned Roe v. Wade in June, Republican politicians and operatives developed a standard talking point: By November, the economy will be the overriding issue in the midterms.

After beating that drum for months, sure enough, it crept into conventional wisdom. For the last month, a wide swath of pundits and analysts alike—mostly male—have taken the GOP talking point as gospel.

Abortion and reproductive rights are on the ballot in these five states—literally

Democrats across the country have repeatedly—and rightly—argued that abortion is on the ballot in November, but in five states, that statement is true in the most literal way possible.

Voters in California, Michigan, and Vermont will have the chance to amend their state constitutions to affirmatively include the right to an abortion, while Kentucky voters are being asked to amend their constitution to exclude that very same right.

Layoffs, a lawsuit, and ‘a massive drop in revenue’: Musk’s Twitter takeover is going well

Things are wild over at Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform. The company is laying off up to half of its workforce, which would amount to around 3,700 people. As layoffs started, former Twitter employees wasted no time filing a class action lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court. Meanwhile, Musk continues to troll and whine all over the platform he is rapidly tanking.

The Loudest Political Voice on SNL

The final Saturday Night Live before the midterm elections on November 8 couldn’t find much to say about the dire political situation unfolding in races across the country. The shoulder shrug of a cold open suggested that Democrats might do better in the polls if they found wild characters—such as Guy Fieri and Azealia Banks—to run for office and compete with similarly outrageous personalities on the Republican ticket.

The Story of My Imposters

I started out as a writer in the early 1990s, before the internet was important. I existed for a long while without a social-media profile, let alone a website to promote my brand. Then—it was about 2009 or so—I was strongly encouraged by my publicist to join the 21st century. I had an opportunity to expose my work to new generations of readers! I thought, Why yes, I would like to do that.

Ideal Landscape

Adrienne Rich, or at least the version of her that people typically remember, was never resigned to the status quo. By the time of her death in 2012, she’d become a feminist leader, an antiwar advocate, and a poet who wrote boldly about politics, human rights, and sexuality. She had vowed to not pay her taxes in protest of the Vietnam War, and she refused a National Medal of Arts, criticizing political leaders.

Ken Burns Tells America’s History Through Six Photographs

Political photographs are deceptive things. They are caught in the middle of the action, the spin of a campaign or backstory, and offer subtle nods to larger currents in our country’s history. Often, if you listen carefully to these images, you’ll hear hints of an American tension: the call for more rights and freedom, and the simultaneous, equally loud cry for exclusion based on differences—and for a compromised version of our participatory democracy.

What’s the Point of Saving One Butterfly Species?

This article was originally published in High Country News.From the top of Pigeon Butte in western Oregon’s William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, the full width of the Willamette Valley fits into a gaze. Slung between the Coast Range and the Cascades, the valley is checkered with farmland: grass-seed fields, hazelnut orchards, vineyards. In the foreground, however, grassy meadows scattered with wildflowers and occasional oaks trace the land’s contours.