Today's Liberal News

As U.S. Olympians Take on the Trump Administration, Trump Attacks Them While Kash Patel Parties

As the winter Olympics come to a close, a number of athletes have drawn controversy for their political statements. U.S. athletes, in particular, have expressed conflicting feelings about representing the United States during the current political moment.
We speak with former athlete Jules Boykoff, who has written extensively on the Olympic games, about how politics intersect with the Games. “The Trump administration has politicized these Olympics from the very beginning,” he says.

President Trump’s State-of-the-Union Variety Show

The longest State of the Union in modern history is now over. Donald Trump held court in the House of Representatives and said little of substance, but substance wasn’t the point. This year, he intended to put on a show, with an array of guest stars and special appearances. He was happy, because he was playing the roles he clearly loves: game-show host, ringmaster, MC, beneficent granter of wishes—and, where the Democrats were concerned, a self-righteous inquisitor.

Trump’s Chance to Turn Things Around Tonight

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When Donald Trump last addressed Congress, in March 2025, he was triumphant. He’d stormed back into the White House after surviving two assassination attempts, and his first 100 days in office were on track to be historically productive.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: What State Is the Union In?

Updated with new questions at 3:05 p.m. ET on February 24, 2026.
If you put any stock in the ability of IQ tests to assess intelligence, we humans have spent the past century steadily getting smarter. (And if you don’t put any stock in them, well, we humans have steadily gotten better at IQ tests.)
Because IQ is a standardized measure, humankind’s average score still sits at 100—but this isn’t your granddaddy’s 100.

The End of Diplomacy

By mid-afternoon, the gray, windowless corridors of the Harry S. Truman Building, the headquarters of the State Department, feel less like the nerve center of the world’s most consequential foreign-policy institution and more like the catacombs for diplomacy. A disorienting and disheartening quiet has settled in, following last year’s sweeping cuts at State and its sister agency USAID.

Photos: Four Years of War in Ukraine

Yuriy Dyachyshyn / AFP / Getty
A Ukrainian honor guard stands while a symbolic illumination entitled “Rays of Memory” is projected over the graves of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the war with Russia, at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, on February 23, 2026.Gleb Garanich / Reuters
A drone hits an apartment building during a Russian missile and drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on December 27, 2025.

Aided by U.S. Intelligence, Mexican Army Kills Top Cartel Leader After Threat of Trump Intervention

Aided by U.S. intelligence, Mexican security forces killed the nation’s most wanted man, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” on Sunday. At least 70 people were killed in the raid and aftermath as armed groups retaliated in more than a dozen states.
“There’s a real sense in Mexico and beyond that governments need to show the U.S.

A Warming Planet Makes Nor’easters & Other Storms More Intense: Climate Scientist Michael Mann

As the Northeast United States contends with the aftermath of a historic bomb cyclone blizzard that blanketed the region, we speak to climate scientist Michael Mann about the causes and effects of increasingly intense weather events. “We expect to see that increase as long as we continue to warm up the planet by burning fossil fuels and putting carbon pollution into the atmosphere,” says Mann. Meanwhile, he adds, policy decisions are making it harder to prepare for extreme weather.