Today's Liberal News

Uhuru 3: Meet Black Liberation Leader Omali Yeshitela, 83. He Faces 5 Years in Prison on Dec. 16

Three activists with the Uhuru Movement will be sentenced by a Florida judge Monday as part of a legal saga that began when the FBI raided the group in 2022, accusing the antiwar Black liberation group of working as Russian agents. The “Uhuru 3” are Omali Yeshitela, chair of the African People’s Socialist Party, and white solidarity activists Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel.

Fasting for Her Son’s Freedom, Mother of Jailed British Egyptian Activist Demands U.K. Pressure Egypt

Laila Soueif is on the 75th day of a hunger strike calling for the U.K. government to push for the release of her son, jailed Egyptian British author and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Charged with spreading false news, Alaa remains imprisoned in Egypt despite having completed his sentence in September. Human rights group say he has been subjected to torture, beatings and horrific treatment while in prison.

The #MeToo Cabinet: Law Prof. Deborah Tuerkheimer on Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Trump & Nominees

President-elect Trump, himself found liable in court for sexual abuse, has picked a striking number of suspected sexual predators for key positions in his incoming administration. Trump’s early pick of former Florida Congressmember Matt Gaetz for attorney general was shot down amid a firestorm over sexual misconduct allegations. Now Trump is pushing hard to keep the rest of his picks on track, including Fox host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump Confronts Republican Rifts

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here.
In just over a month, Donald Trump will be sworn in as president again. He and his congressional allies want to hit the ground running, but Republican lawmakers are quickly confronting divides and questions over where to start.

A Sky Full of Stars

ESA / Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Zamani, M. G. Guarcello
Day 14 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: a sky full of stars. The open cluster Westerlund 1 is located roughly 12,000 light-years away, residing behind a huge interstellar cloud of gas and dust.

Books and Movies to Sustain an Attention Span

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
In 2022, my colleague Megan Garber reflected on the transactional side of attention. “Far too often, I find myself mindlessly twitch-clicking on an enticing headline, and then reading, and then regretting,” she wrote. “I pay my attention; I instantly wish for a refund.

What Nikki Giovanni Wouldn’t Write About

Writing about the loss of public figures is something I rarely do, because my muddled thoughts typically take more time to process than the news cycle allows. But the death of Nikki Giovanni on Monday, at 81, felt different. That night, after putting my son to bed, I searched for her name in my Gmail account, looking for correspondence involving an essay I had once assigned to her.

The Health-Care System Isn’t Hopeless

Earlier this month, the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare was assassinated during morning rush hour on a busy block in Midtown Manhattan; the alleged killer’s confession went viral, in particular the line “the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy.”
The murder led to a mass airing of grievances with American insurers and, among those who felt that the industry had it coming, a haunting moment of collective glee.