Today's Liberal News

Far right’s armed thugs unable to intimidate LGBTQ community, thanks to large crowds of defenders

The antidemocratic far right has been building momentum for its campaign of intimidation against the LGBTQ community this year by organizing gangs of armed neofascist thugs to turn out at their events—ranging from Pride gatherings to drag-queen story hours—and has largely done so without resistance. That’s beginning to change—and it seems to be making a difference.

Ukraine update: 100,000 Russian soldiers have died. Bakhmut stands

UPDATE: Thursday, Dec 22, 2022 · 11:09:38 PM +00:00

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Mark Sumner

💬 Russian MFA Spokesperson Maria Zakharova: Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations @SergiyKyslytsya tweeted a new flag of Ukraine 👇 This is exactly what we’ve been talking about all these years – though no one believed. Well, congrats! https://t.

Ukraine’s Fate and America’s Destiny

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.The Ukrainian president came to Washington not only to seek aid in the fight against Russia but to remind Americans that there is still a “free world,” and only the United States can unite it.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

How Glass Frogs Weave the World’s Best Invisibility Cloak

Glass frogs do not live a life of modesty. With their semitransparent skin—green on the back, clear on the belly—the tree-dwelling, gummy-bear-size amphibians, which are native to the tropics of Central and South America, have little choice but to put their organs on display. Gaze up at certain species from below, and you’ll be treated to an aquarium of innards: a beating heart, a matrix of bones, the shimmering silhouette of the gut.

How the Lessons of Game of Thrones Were Lost

Were the meaning of life to be divined from any artifact produced in the year 2022, that artifact would be a Negroni Sbagliato. Or rather, it would be the sight of the actors Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, in a now-famous promotional video for HBO’s House of the Dragon, discussing their favorite cocktails. In the dishy tone of someone describing a sex dream, D’Arcy endorses the Negroni Sbagliato, which is like a negroni but, D’Arcy purrs, “with prosecco in it.

Why I Left Venezuela

Migration, I like to tell myself, is the opposite of inertia. I left Venezuela on August 28, 2014. President Hugo Chávez had died the year before, bequeathing power over his dictatorship to his hand-picked successor, Nicolás Maduro. Around this time, supermarket shelves were emptying and resourceful Venezuelans were creating WhatsApp groups to tell one another where to find medicine, toilet paper, flour.

“We Are at a Precipice as a Nation”: Cornel West & Christina Greer on Jan. 6 Insurrection & More

We speak with Fordham University political science professor Christina Greer and theologian Cornel West about the January 6 committee’s recommendation that former President Donald Trump and his allies be criminally charged for their role in the insurrection and attempts to overturn the 2020 election. “Just because it’s unprecedented doesn’t mean that we can’t have prosecutions,” says Greer.

U.S. Faith Leaders Call for Xmas Truce in Ukraine as Zelensky Visits D.C. Seeking More Arms & Money

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has wrapped up a one-day visit to Washington, D.C., where he called on the Biden administration and lawmakers to provide more military and financial aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. This was Zelensky’s first overseas trip in nearly a year, since the war began. Ahead of the trip, over 1,000 faith leaders in the United States called for a Christmas truce in Ukraine.

Trump paid no taxes in half of the last six years and his returns have dozens of potential issues

On Tuesday evening, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 24 to 16 to release information it has obtained on Donald Trump’s tax returns. Some of that information has already been made available to the public. The report shows that Trump, while running as a successful billionaire, reported massive losses on his business dealings in the years just before entering the White House.

The information released to the public includes the years 2015 through 2020.