Today's Liberal News

Ukraine update: Air strikes, intense fighting, and Ukraine is still kicking butt in Severodonetsk

With the concentration of forces—and attention—on the Battle of Severodonetsk, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the war to expel Russian invaders continues from Kharkiv to Kherson. Nathan Ruser has prepared a pair of images to show the movements across the entire face of Ukraine over the last month, and what those images show is not only very little overall change, but as many Ukrainian advances as Russian advances.

Florida cop bonds out of jail same day he turns himself in for shooting, killing innocent Black man

A Florida police officer was arrested on Wednesday and accused of manslaughter after he shot and killed a Black man falsely identified as a domestic violence suspect. Following the death of 40-year-old James Lowery, Officer Joseph Payne turned himself into Brevard County Jail on Wednesday and was released the same day on a $15,000 bond, according to CBS affiliate WKMG-TV.

Starbucks workers storm past 100 unionized stores and keep going, this week in the war on workers

The 100th Starbucks store went union on May 27, and the momentum has not let up. On May 31, the union won votes in South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania—the first of those unanimously. On June 1, the union won three stores in Maryland. June 2 saw another unanimous win in South Carolina and three wins in Oregon. June 3, it was four unanimous votes at four Massachusetts stores, along with the first Starbucks union win in Texas.

LCV joins movement to fix ‘the most partisan and corrupted Supreme Court in living memory’

The movement to expand the Supreme Court keeps growing, with the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) the most recent group to call out the dangerous, extremist court and demand change. “Our nation’s highest court has been packed by far-right interests waging an unprecedented judicial assault on our environment, our democracy, our equality, and our reproductive rights,” the League said in announcing their stand.

What Avril Lavigne Has Always Understood About Growing Up

Avril Lavigne seemed to baffle music writers in 2002 when she released her first single, the infectious mid-tempo banger “Complicated.” Rolling Stone dubbed her a “tiny terror” with a “nouveau-punk” sound who could be, of all things, “a fine country singer in the making.” Entertainment Weekly breathlessly wondered whether she was “the teen Bob Dylan.

I Helped Women Get Abortions in Pre-Roe America

When I was 16, I helped desperate women get abortions. This was in the sliver of time between New York State’s 1970 legalization of abortion and the Roe v. Wade decision three years later, which allowed women in every state to choose whether to continue their pregnancies. I answered phones for the Women’s Abortion Project at its headquarters in a shabby, unheated meeting space of the Women’s Liberation Center, on West 22nd Street in Manhattan.

The Uvalde Police Chose Dishonor

Society cannot demand courageous self-sacrifice; we can only ask for it. Most of us know we ourselves would be too frightened to face an armed gunman in a direct confrontation, and we accordingly choose to seek work that doesn’t put us in such positions—or shouldn’t. But perhaps even some of those who do volunteer for danger now lack the fortitude, the relevant virtues of courage, honor, and selflessness, to take up the task.

Climate Crisis, Ukraine War Worsen Food Crisis in East Africa; Someone Dies of Hunger Every 48 Secs

In a devastating new report, Oxfam says one person is likely dying from hunger every 48 seconds in drought-ravaged Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. We speak with Shannon Scribner, director of humanitarian work at Oxfam America, about how the hunger crisis has worsened since an earlier report was released 10 years ago. She says climate change and the recent war in Ukraine have worsened already dire conditions in East Africa.

Ukraine update: No shortage of action on every front

As kos talked about this morning, after a couple of weeks in which Ukrainian troops seemed to be catching their breath, the Kharkiv counteroffensive is back in business. On Thursday, Ukrainian forces captured the town of Vesele, which had not only been a long-time hard point for the Russian line, but was also one of the sites from which Russia was firing artillery into the city of Kharkiv. 

Ukraine is once again whittling down the Russian-occupied area above Kharkiv.

Latino civil rights group MALDEF sues Illinois landlord who threatened tenants with deportation

Illinois couple Maria Maltos Escutia and Gabriel Valdez Garcia entered a verbal agreement to rent a basement apartment in 2017, agreeing to pay Marco Antonio Contreras and Denise Contreras $600 a month. This verbal agreement continued on for several years until early 2020, when the Contreras’ asked for a signed contract, to which Maltos Escutia and Valdez Garcia agreed.