Today's Liberal News
Money Talks: Country-sized Mistakes
A live chat with Felix Salmon and Lee Buchheit hosted by the Library of Mistakes.
Citadel Swoops In to Save Situational Awareness
Leopold Aschenbrenner’s A.I.-focused portfolio was plummeting before Ken Griffin snapped up most of it.
Vance presses Justice Department to investigate hospitals over transgender care
The Trump administration alleges that some hospitals are incorrectly billing for gender-affirming care.
NIH head quarrels with CBS host over loss in public trust on health issues
Jay Bhattacharya’s interview ended up similar in tone to the one with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week on CNN.
The Trump admin offered sick Medicaid patients a 1-year lifeline. These red states are rejecting it.
Several conservative states will require proof from people who say they’re too sick to work.
Fear of lettuce is making RFK Jr.’s food messaging harder for consumers to swallow
The parasite, which spreads via fresh produce and can cause explosive diarrhea, has sickened thousands of Americans in this summer’s record outbreak.
Hellbent on putting Fauci in jail, Rand Paul wants to skip a Senate vote
The Kentucky senator and nemesis of America’s Covid czar says he’s taking his case straight to the attorney general.
When Church Was a Queer Space
Outward’s hosts sit down with the host and co-creator of When We All Get to Heaven.
Remembering, with the People of MCC San Francisco, AIDS Still Isn’t Over.
The neighborhood changes, the church moves, people forget and remember “the AIDS years,” but AIDS isn’t over.
What Happens When You Organize Church Around AIDS – and AIDS Changes?
The AIDS cocktail opens new possibilities. And MCC San Francisco tries to use the experience of AIDS to make bigger social change.
The Church’s Pastor Gets Diagnosed with AIDS. And the Church Wonders How Much They Might Lose.
The church’s minister gets sick and everyone knows it.
A Church Romance Between a Hula Dancer and a Lumbersexual Blossoms in a Dangerous Time.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
“Deep Unlearning”: Timnit Gebru on AI Hype, Ethics & Algorithmic Racial Bias
We speak with Timnit Gebru, a leader in the field of AI ethics, about how artificial intelligence is entrenching societal biases and inequality. Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, a group of academics, activists and engineers who produce research rooted in the belief that technology should benefit everyone.
What the Shell?
The Trump administration is axing a bipartisan anti-corruption law that would require shell companies to disclose their beneficiaries.
Bumble Hands the First Move Back to Men
Every dating app, formally or informally, has its thing. Hinge, with its earnest prompts, is wholesome. Tinder, with its quick swipes left or right, is horny. Feeld, with its 30-plus tags for communicating your romantic and sexual desires, is kinky. And Bumble, with its “women message first” rule, was meant from the start to be feminist.
In 2014, Whitney Wolfe Herd launched the platform to solve what she saw as a problem: an epidemic of aggressive men on the apps.
Eight Perfect Series Finales
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.
Last year, I asked The Atlantic’s writers and editors to name a perfect episode of TV, but a perfect finale is especially hard to pull off—and nothing invokes the wrath of fans quite like a bad ending. Here are eight shows that make the most out of their last minutes.
Spidey’s Sense for Success
This has been a terrific year for movie theaters. Cinemas are on course for their best financial year since before the coronavirus pandemic, powered by large-scale hits such as The Odyssey and surprise small-budget smashes, particularly Obsession and Backrooms. Fears about the decline of the big-screen experience amid the rise of at-home streaming seem to have begun dissipating.
A Bleak, Violent Novel’s Unexpected Delights
This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here.
Before his latest book, Marlon James hadn’t written a novel set in Jamaica in more than a decade. In the years following his Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings, the author focused on his Dark Star Trilogy, set in a fantasy universe.
Photos of the Week: Mudflat Trot, Waterfall Jump, Pole Vault
Lintao Zhang / Getty
Szabo Sopov Kristof of Hungary practices ahead of the 2026 IWWF World Cable Wakeboard & Wakeskate Championships at Shunyi Olympic Cable Park on August 9, 2026, in Beijing, China.Nick Wass / AP
Washington Nationals’ Dylan Crews slides into home plate to score on a single by Daylen Lile during the sixth inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds on August 8, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
“American Doctor”: New Film Follows U.S. Doctors to Gaza as Israel Bombs Hospitals, Kills Staff, Patients
The new documentary American Doctor tells the story of how the besieged hospitals of Gaza have continued to treat the sick and wounded throughout Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory, with local medical staff risking their own lives in the process. According to Palestinian officials, Israeli attacks have killed about 1,700 healthcare workers in Gaza since October 2023. The documentary follows three U.S. doctors as they volunteer in Gaza hospitals.
“Mop Up Michigan”: Donavan McKinney on Democratic Socialism, Corporate Money & His Primary Upset
One of the biggest upsets from Democratic primary elections this month was Donavan McKinney’s defeat of two-term Congressmember Shri Thanedar in the House primary to represent parts of Detroit and Wayne County in Michigan’s 13th District. McKinney, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, won on a platform to get corporate money out of politics, support Medicare for All and end military aid to Israel, among other issues.
“Stop Toxic Data Centers”: Justin Pearson on Elon Musk, AI & Winning Dem. House Primary in Memphis
We speak with Tennessee lawmaker Justin J. Pearson, who just won the Democratic primary to represent part of Memphis in the state’s 9th Congressional District. Pearson’s campaign focused in part on opposing large artificial intelligence data centers, particularly Elon Musk’s Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, which are in the Memphis area.
“People don’t want toxic data centers polluting the air that they breathe,” says Pearson.
Starbucks and McDonald’s Keep Pushing These Drinks. I Have a Distressing Theory Why.
America’s favorite new sweet treat is a glaring recession indicator.
Money Talks: Country-sized Mistakes
A live chat with Felix Salmon and Lee Buchheit hosted by the Library of Mistakes.
Citadel Swoops In to Save Situational Awareness
Leopold Aschenbrenner’s A.I.-focused portfolio was plummeting before Ken Griffin snapped up most of it.
The “Explosive” News Story That We All Couldn’t Stop Talking About.
Cyclosporiasis’ rebranding as “explosive diarrhea” has brought our collective attention to food safety concerns and the MAGA-cultivated Taylor Farms.
Money Talks: Your Plastic Guilt Is by Design
Beth Gardiner explains how we ended up holding the (plastic) bag for Big Oil’s wastefulness.
NIH head quarrels with CBS host over loss in public trust on health issues
Jay Bhattacharya’s interview ended up similar in tone to the one with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week on CNN.