Today's Liberal News

“Policy Violence”: ICE Raids & Shredding of Social Safety Net Are Linked, Says Bishop William Barber

Protests have erupted in North Carolina after federal agents arrested 370 people in immigration raids. On Monday, Bishop William Barber and other religious leaders gathered in Charlotte to demand an end to ICE raids. “​​What you have is a conglomerate of policy violence, and it’s deadly,” says Barber, who is organizing protests against ICE and Medicaid cuts across the country.

Mamdani’s Affordability Agenda: Incoming NYC Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan on How to Make It Happen

Zohran Mamdani will be taking office as mayor of New York in just five weeks. His transition team continues to make announcements about the new administration, recently unveiling a 400-person advisory group, broken up into 17 committees. Democracy Now! speaks with the incoming first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, on how Mamdani plans to implement his progressive vision.

“From Apartheid to Democracy”: Sarah Leah Whitson on New Book, Israel, Gaza & Trump-MBS Meeting

During a controversial Oval Office meeting last week, President Trump defended Mohammed bin Salman when a reporter asked about the Saudi crown prince’s involvement in the 2018 murder of Washington Post opinion columnist Jamal Khashoggi. “The man sitting in the White House next to President Trump is a murderer,” says Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN, an organization founded by Khashoggi in 2018. To Whitson, Trump’s main motivation for cozying up to Saudi Arabia is financial.

Ukraine Says It Won’t Give Up Land to Russia

Volodymyr Zelensky, in the next phase of talks to end the war in Ukraine, intends to draw a red line at the most contentious issue on the table: the Russian demand for Ukraine’s sovereign territory. As long as he remains the nation’s president, Zelensky will not agree to give up land in exchange for peace, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Andriy Yermak, told me today in an exclusive interview.

A Terrible and Avoidable Tragedy in D.C.

Before an Afghan refugee, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, yesterday shot and seriously injured two National Guard members who had been deployed by President Donald Trump to Washington, D.C., military commanders had warned that their deployment represented an easy “target of opportunity” for grievance-based violence. The troops, deployed in an effort to reduce crime, are untrained in law enforcement; their days are spent cleaning up trash and walking the streets in uniform.

“I’m Not Going to Give Up”: Leonard Peltier on Indigenous Rights, His Half-Century in Prison & Coming Home

In September, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman sat down with longtime political prisoner and Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier for his first extended television and radio broadcast interview since his release to home confinement in February. Before his commutation by former President Joe Biden, the 81-year-old Peltier spent nearly 50 years behind bars. Peltier has always maintained his innocence for the 1975 killing of two FBI officers.

The Limits of the Year’s Most Heartbreaking Film

Agnes Hathaway, the elusive heroine of the director Chloé Zhao’s new film, Hamnet, seems happiest when in nature: retreating to the woods as often as she can, collecting mushrooms, tucking into tree hollows to sleep. She spends so much time outdoors that rumor spreads across her English village about her mother being a witch. It’s a believable claim; Agnes, as played by the actress Jessie Buckley, is raw, brooding, and fundamentally enigmatic.

The Right Attitude to Gratitude

Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out.
Have you ever reflected on what an ungrateful wretch you are? Instead of being thankful that a delicious beverage awaits at your favorite coffee shop, you fume because the person ahead in line ordered a caramel macchiato frappe oatmeal horchata with a splash of macadamia milk, and is now paying for it in nickels.
Your ingratitude is not your fault; it’s probably evolution’s.

Who Would Win?

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?”
“No.”
“How about The Phantom Tollbooth? I love that book.”
“No,” Elliott says. He holds out a slender volume: Who Would Win? Ultimate Pterosaur Rumble.
“We just read that,” I say, almost crying.
“I know,” he says, with what passes for compassion in a 4-year-old boy.