Today's Liberal News

News Roundup: Justice asks for Jan. 6 transcripts; expanding the Supreme Court

In the news today: More movement in the probe of the Jan. 6 insurrection, with the Justice Department now asking for copies of what the House congressional committee has pried out of witnesses. Calls to expand the Supreme Court keep growing. Oh, and a professional anti-abortion activist told Congress under oath that our electrical grid was powered by burning fetuses. So yeah, it does seem like civilization is on its last legs here.

Ukraine update: Cutting through the fog to get some sense of what’s happening at Staryi Saltiv

I’ve written before about the danger of basing any interpretation of what’s happening on the ground on the data from NASA’s FIRMS instruments. A collection of orbiting spectrographs and infrared sensors are not a substitute of any sort for reports on the ground. They can’t distinguish artillery from a forest fire, can’t tell what the source of any fire might be, and absolutely can’t fit all those little colored squares into any kind of narrative.

Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO calls a politically divided America ‘very good for our business’

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is looking forward to taking in a massive haul in TV ad spending in the run up to November’s midterm elections. The conservative-slanted broadcasting company—the second-largest owner of local TV stations in the U.S.—has already seen a surge in TV ad spending, thanks to competitive primary races in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other key states.

CPAC travels to Hungary to fete the Trump of Europe, authoritarian leader Viktor Orban

Remember the old days, when Democrats and Republicans argued over trivialities, like the capital gains tax and Michael Dukakis’ tank helmet, not whether democracy was a good idea? Look where we are now. Democrats, as always, have been full-throated in defense of Western liberal democracy, whereas Republicans have been making Magi-like treks to Hungary to quaff from the cold, clear, invigorating wellspring of Viktor Orban-style authoritarianism.

The Review: Knocked Up

Fifteen years on, what can we learn from how the movie Knocked Up treated abortion, pregnancy, and women’s bodily autonomy? And what does it say in the era of a leaked Supreme Court opinion that could overturn Roe v. Wade as we know it? Join The Review as Sophie Gilbert, Megan Garber, and Hannah Giorgis dissect Judd Apatow’s 2007 film.Listen to the discussion here:The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

So, Have You Heard About Monkeypox?

Yesterday afternoon, I called the UCLA epidemiologist Anne Rimoin to ask about the European outbreak of monkeypox—a rare but potentially severe viral illness with dozens of confirmed or suspected cases in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal. “If we see those clusters, given the amount of travel between the United States and Europe, I wouldn’t be surprised to see cases here,” Rimoin, who studies the disease, told me.

A Very Expensive, Technically Illegal Workaround to the Formula Shortage

The baby-formula shortage has been something of a nightmare for Aleisha Velez, a 25-year-old mother of two who lives in Philadelphia. Velez relies on the federal government’s Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) program to get free formula, which means she can’t just get the product shipped to her home. So over the past two months, she has called store after store to find in-stock formula before traveling up to an hour one-way on a train or a bus (or both) to get it.

How Hulu’s Conversations With Friends Got Sally Rooney So Wrong

Early in Sally Rooney’s debut novel, Conversations With Friends, the heroine has a nightmare. Frances, a college student, dreams that a tooth has come loose in her mouth, leaving a hole that pumps out so much blood, she can’t speak. “The blood tasted thick, clotted and salty,” she recounts. “I could feel it, vividly, running back down my throat.

An End to Neoliberalism? How Chile Drafted New Constitution to Rewrite Pinochet-Era Laws

In a historic milestone, Chile has finalized a draft of its first-ever democratically written constitution to replace the one created under the U.S.-backed neoliberal dictator Augusto Pinochet. The new constitution is expected to enshrine a wide range of human rights and social programs, including free universal access to healthcare, higher education, reproductive rights, as well as more robust environmental safeguards and policies to promote gender and racial equity.

End the Filibuster: Senate Can’t Pass Gun Control Despite Public Support, 198 Mass Shootings in 2022

The white supremacist who shot 10 people dead in Buffalo, New York, was able to buy an assault rifle months after New York state police took him into custody for making a threat about committing violence. The gun store owner who sold the weapon says a background check showed a clean record. We look at how background checks alone are not enough to prevent gun violence, as both mass shootings and weapons sales have skyrocketed in recent years without more legislation at the federal level.

Nina Khrushcheva: Talks to End War in Ukraine Are Collapsing as U.S. Seeks Regime Change in Moscow

As the United Nations warns about the devastating global impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, talks to negotiate a peace settlement appear to have collapsed. Russian President Vladimir Putin appears determined to push forward despite a more resilient Ukrainian defense than expected, as both sides seem to be fixated on gaining military and territorial victories. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to pour millions of dollars in weapons into Ukraine.

Boris Johnson Isn’t the Only One to Blame for Northern Ireland

In the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell introduced President George W. Bush to the “Pottery Barn rule”: “You break it, you own it.” Powell’s point was that military victory over Saddam Hussein would not be the end of America’s involvement, but the beginning. Something similar is true for Northern Ireland today, where the fragile peace settlement that has just about held for nearly a quarter century is close to breaking.

News Roundup: Primary night sees Republican seditionists do well, Republican tattletales not so much

Primary elections in multiple states have begun to shake out what the November elections will look like, and we now know for certain that Rep. Madison Cawthorn won’t be in Congress come next January. Republican voters handed him his own primary loss after he publicly asserted earlier this year that his fellow national Republicans were having drug orgies.

What Cawthorn was not booted for was his vocal support for the nullification of an American election.

Ukraine update: Sometimes NATO doesn’t seem like much of an alliance

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered his 84th daily update to the people of Ukraine. He also spoke on the phone with the president of the United Arab Emirates in an effort to get a new source of fuel, discussed a new assistance package with the president of the European Union, welcomed the U.S. embassy back to Kyiv, and dealt with the 1,001 items it takes to keep a nation afloat in the midst of a military invasion that represents a genuine existential crisis.