Today's Liberal News

‘Glades is a dangerous place for immigrants’: EPA is urged to probe chemical misuse at ICE facility

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being asked to investigate the illegal misuse of a toxic chemical at a Florida immigration detention facility that already has a history of human rights abuses. More than two dozen groups are urging the agency to probe Florida’s Glades County Detention Center (GCDC), expressing worry the facility is miusing the chemicals at up to 50 times the permitted concentration.

How Far Should the World Go to Support Ukraine?

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Friday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Earlier this week I asked for your thoughts about the war in Ukraine. Every single correspondent was sympathetic to Ukraine, not Russia.

A Small-Scale Sci-Fi Film That Asks the Genre’s Biggest Question

After Yang begins with a dance. The opening credits of Kogonada’s new science-fiction film are an invigorating introduction: a montage of the movie’s entire cast executing a synchronized musical number in groups of four, as part of a virtual competition. The dance moves are rigid, though still delivered with flashes of improvisation, and the entire joyous sequence is the kind more movies could stand to indulge.

Democrats Are Still Delusional About Trump

Six years into the Trump era in American politics, many of his critics still believe they can find a silver bullet to end it. On Wednesday, the House committee on January 6 filed a brief in a federal court in California that, depending on your interpretation, was either an attempt to compel documents from a reluctant witness or an omen of Donald Trump’s imminent imprisonment.

Now We’re Just Throwing Trash at the Moon

The moon is a wonderland of craters—thousands of them, carved by asteroids hitting the surface over billions of years. Space rocks are still at it, and every year the bombardment scoops out dozens of craters big enough for moon-orbiting spacecraft to notice. Today, because of human beings and their little space things, Earth’s celestial companion got one more dent.This morning, a piece of space junk smacked right into the far side of the moon.

When the Setting Is the Story

The way a place looks, sounds, feels, and smells is a crucial part of how we experience and remember it. So it can be a challenge to make somewhere feel real with words alone. To bring the South to life in her most recent book, Imani Perry turned to travelogues, a genre with long roots in the region. The books she revisited “are artistic and philosophical explorations” as well as geographic ones, she writes. And in her memoir, The Yellow House, Sarah M.

Russian Environmentalist Speaks Out on Putin’s Attack on Antiwar Protesters & Independent Media

As the Russian military escalates its invasion in Ukraine, Russian police are cracking down on antiwar protesters at home, arresting more than 8,000 over the past eight days. Meanwhile, Russia’s lower house of parliament has passed a new law to criminalize the distribution of what the state considers to be “false news” about military operations, and remaining independent news outlets in the country are shutting down under pressure from the authorities.

Russia’s Unprecedented Shelling of Ukrainian Nuclear Plant Raises Fears of Another Chernobyl

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of “nuclear terror” after Russian forces shelled and subsequently set on fire the largest nuclear power plant in Europe on Friday morning. The fire at the Zaporizhzhia plant burned for hours but reportedly did not spread to any of the plant’s six reactors before the Russians ultimately seized the site. Ukraine heavily relies on nuclear power, with 15 active nuclear power reactors across the country.

Filipino Scholar Walden Bello on Why the Global South Is Suspicious of U.S. Motives in Ukraine War

We speak with acclaimed Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello on the Global South’s response to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine. Bello says there’s hesitation from many world leaders to take an active role in the crisis, arguing that there is a lack of explicit national interests and a general suspicion the U.S. provoked the invasion to take advantage of the subsequent backlash against Russia.

Hannity offers some strategic advice for NATO in Ukraine and it might be worse than you’d expect

Generalissimo Sean Hannity, the high commander for war strategy at Fox News, has an idea that will end the war! Erm, sorry—I meant “world.” Those two words sound so similar. 

Anyone with any sense of history knows that the last thing President Joe Biden can do is send the U.S. military into Ukraine while Russia conducts its war of aggression. Nor can NATO—which includes three nuclear powers—get involved.

Russian invasion forced flight cancellation for some Ukrainian refugees approved to arrive to U.S.

Viktoriya, a U.S. citizen originally from Ukraine, tells CNN that she’s agonizing over what she can do to help loved ones who are also in the immigration process but have now had to flee their homes following brutal Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s invasion. “Right now, they are in different places, which makes us scared,” she said in the report. “They don’t know what to do.

Caribbean Matters: CARICOM meets in Belize to discuss food insecurity, COVID, tourism, and Ukraine

While most of our focus here in the U.S. has been on events in Ukraine and on President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, key figures in the Caribbean were gathered for the 33rd session of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), held in Belize on March 1-2. No matter how far away from Europe, events taking place there will have a global impact, and the Caribbean is no exception.

That does not mean that Ukraine was a primary focus of the gathering.

In stunning move, Republican congressman drops re-election bid in Texas after admitting affair

Republican Rep. Van Taylor shocked Texas politicos Wednesday by announcing that he was ending his re-election campaign because of an affair the married congressman had with a woman who had fled her ISIS terrorist husband years ago, a move that came hours after he was forced into a primary runoff against former Collin County Judge Keith Self. Taylor said he would be taking his name off the runoff ballot, which will automatically make Self the GOP nominee.

Biden’s State of the Union Did Something New

Listening to Joe Biden give his first official State of the Union address on Tuesday night, I thought: This is strong. It is clear; it’s the right message in the right language. It reflects the speaker in an honest way. And it also brings something new to this tired form.But each of those judgments rests on assumptions about speeches in general and State of the Union addresses in particular. So let me lay out my reasoning and then get to the details of the speech.