Today's Liberal News

An Unusual Movie Pick for Father’s Day

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.Today I wanted to take a break from politics and war and think about fathers, especially the ones—like mine—who weren’t exactly the best role models.But first, here are three great new stories from The Atlantic.
This is the January 6 committee’s most damning revelation yet.

10 Hours, Two Theme Parties

Sign up for Kaitlyn and Lizzie’s newsletter here.Lizzie: Some summer Saturdays are lazy, languid, and planless, with no clearly defined structure other than the requirement that you eat at some point and go to bed at some other point.

Perfume Genius Sings the Body Electric

On a warm, late-March night in Washington, D.C., just a few blocks from where Walt Whitman once visited Union soldiers and wooed his beloved Irish horse-car conductor, Mike Hadreas took the mic for a sold-out show. As Perfume Genius, his stage name, he quickly settled into the lilting groove of “Your Body Changes Everything,” from his acclaimed 2020 album, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately.

The Personal Brand Is Dead

When I was 21, the cool thing to be was famous on Instagram. Now the cooler thing to be is a mystery. Anonymity is in.The youngest adult generation and the most online generation is frustrated with being surveilled and embarrassed by attention-seeking behaviors. This has instigated a retreat into smaller internet spaces and secret-sharing apps, as well as a mini-renaissance for Tumblr, where users rarely use their full names.

The Democrats’ New Spokesman in the Culture Wars

On May 4, two days after Politico rocked Washington by revealing the draft of a Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, California Governor Gavin Newsom delivered remarks at a Los Angeles Planned Parenthood office—and triggered a small earthquake of his own.Newsom pledged that, however the Court ruled, California would ensure legal access to abortion.

Poor People’s March on Washington Saturday Demands “Moral Reset” on Poverty, Voting Rights, Climate

We speak with Bishop William Barber and Reverend Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign, about plans for Saturday’s Moral March on Washington and to the Polls to demand the government address key issues facing poor and low-income communities. The march will bring together thousands of people from diverse backgrounds to speak out against the country’s rising poverty rates, voter suppression in low-income communities and more.

Trump’s Lawyer John Eastman Asked for Pardon After Giving Illegal Advice to Overturn Election

During Thursday’s third public hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann described in recorded testimony his call with John Eastman, the lawyer advising former President Trump on the plan to overturn the 2020 election. The call took place on January 7, one day after the deadly insurrection.

“Hang Mike Pence!”: Jan. 6 Hearing Shows Trump Targeted VP, Knew Plan to Overturn Vote Was Illegal

We air highlights from the third public hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, which revealed that President Trump pressured Vice President Pence to overturn the 2020 election results even though he knew it was illegal. The hearing included testimony from Pence’s attorney, Greg Jacob, who said the plan’s main architect, attorney John Eastman, actively admitted his strategy violated the law, and yet continued anyway.

Punished for Exposing War Crimes? U.K. Approves Assange Extradition to U.S., Faces 175 Years in Prison

In a blow to press freedom, the United Kingdom has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face espionage charges related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Home Secretary Priti Patel signed off on the transfer after the U.K. Supreme Court denied Assange’s appeals earlier this year, part of a years-long legal battle that rights groups have decried as an attack on journalism and free speech.

Biden to Visit Saudi Arabia After Vowing to Treat Kingdom as a “Pariah” for Human Rights Violations

President Biden’s formally announced plan to visit Saudi Arabia next month is a dramatic reversal of earlier promises to treat the Arab nation as a “pariah” in light of its repeated human rights violations. Calls are growing for Biden to hold the Saudi government accountable for the brutal murder and dismemberment of American resident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Ukraine Update: Russians are suffering from artillery barrages too, and a battlefield overview

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I’ve been on a rampage against claims that Ukraine suffers from a massive artillery deficit (here, here, and here). Ukraine has a vested interest in pleading poverty, building urgency among the international community for more aid. But the evidence suggests Ukraine is holding its own. 

Mark made this map a few days ago, showing NASA FIRMS fire data from around the Severodonetsk area. Red dots are artillery fires in Russian territory, blue ones in Ukrainian territory.

News Roundup: Eastman sought Trump pardon; committee will seek testimony from Ginni Thomas

It was a day of stunning developments in the House select committee hearings on the Jan. 6 coup attempt. A released email revealed that Trump lawyer John Eastman requested a presidential pardon after helping to spearhead the plan that would have had Vice President Mike Pence unilaterally throw out the electoral votes of several Biden-won states—a plan that witnesses told the committee was clearly criminal.

Our environment matters: Thousands of Kansas cattle died due to heat and humidity changes

I’ve taken time to enjoy some of the farm life over the last few months, at least off and on. We take time to care for horses, our chickens, and a few other animals. In more rural Kansas, the horses are at a point where thanks to the heat and high humidity, they need aggressive water planning as well as more frequent “spray downs” because trees that would traditionally provide cover aren’t doing as well in the last year.

Fighting for AAPI abortion care means disaggregating data

by Jenn Fang

This article was originally published at Prism.

Based on the recent leak of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion draft, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to strike down Roe v. Wade this year and eliminate constitutional protections for abortion access. The effects will be catastrophic for many marginalized communities, including Asian Americans, whom public health and political opinion data often overlook and treat as a monolith.

Trump’s Dangerous Wannabes

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.As more revelations emerge from the January 6–committee proceedings, I am struck by how much the Constitution was threatened not only by outsize figures such as Donald Trump, but even more so by mediocre men and women who thought their moment of glory had finally arrived.