Today's Liberal News

The Glaring Oversight in the U.S. War Plan

The United States and Israel took at least a month to prepare their attack on Iran, assembling the largest arsenal of aircraft carriers and fighter jets that the Middle East has seen in decades. But one gap in their planning became clear during the first days of the war, as the United States and its allies used their most advanced anti-aircraft systems to shoot down swarms of cheap, easily replaceable Iranian drones.

Jay Bhattacharya Might Get His COVID Capstone

This time last year, Jay Bhattacharya’s main claim to fame was, in essence, a hot take on COVID. In 2020, Bhattacharya, then a health economist at Stanford University without specialized training in infectious disease, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter that downplayed the risk of COVID and called for most of society to reopen before the arrival of vaccines.

How Kristi Noem Lost Her Job

Updated at 7:52 p.m. ET on March 5, 2026
Kristi Noem’s autobiography includes the harrowing story of her decision to put down her dog, Cricket. The ill-fated pet had first ruined a hunting foray by going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life,” and went on to kill several chickens belonging to a neighbor. Noem then decided she had to shoot Cricket. “It was not a pleasant job,” she recounts, “but it had to be done.

“Armed Only with a Camera”: Oscar-Nominated Doc Honors Brent Renaud and Other “Fallen Journalists”

We speak with filmmaker Craig Renaud, the director of Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, an HBO documentary about his brother, photojournalist Brent Renaud, who was killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine in 2022. March 13 marks the fourth anniversary of Brent’s death, and the film is both a tribute to him and “a bigger story about all the journalists who were being killed,” says Craig.

Geeta Gandbhir on Her Double Oscar Noms for “The Perfect Neighbor” & “The Devil Is Busy”

Geeta Gandbhir has made history as the first woman to receive Oscar nominations for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short in the same year. Her feature-length film, The Perfect Neighbor, looks at the case of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four who was fatally shot in 2023 by her white neighbor. Her documentary short, The Devil Is Busy, chronicles a day on the frontlines in the battle for reproductive rights at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta.

“Why Are We Going to War?”: Former U.S. Middle East Officials Say Trump Has “No Clear Plan” on Iran

As the U.S. and Israel continue their bombardment of Iran and the conflict spreads throughout the region, we speak with two former U.S. government officials with experience in Middle East policy. Hala Rharrit is a career diplomat who resigned from the State Department in 2024 to protest the Biden administration’s Gaza policy, and Jasmine El-Gamal served as a Middle East adviser at the Pentagon during the Obama administration.

Things Are About to Get Ugly in Texas

In the end, it wasn’t particularly close. Democrats in last night’s Texas Senate primary decisively chose their fighter for November: James Talarico, a 36-year-old state lawmaker who looks—and sounds—like a youth pastor.
At certain moments, the primary between Talarico and Representative Jasmine Crockett felt ugly. Online, supporters slung insults and accusations of racism.

Trump Has Lost the Plot in Iran

Like many of his predecessors over the past five decades, Donald Trump risks having his presidency hijacked by Iran. The 1979 revolution and subsequent hostage crisis ended Jimmy Carter’s presidency. The Iran-Contra affair tainted Ronald Reagan’s. Iranian machinations in postwar Iraq sabotaged George W. Bush’s. The Iran nuclear deal—and the bitter partisan fight over it—consumed the second half of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Pete Hegseth Treats Fallen American Soldiers as a PR Problem

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The United States is at war. Americans, at such a time, might expect their government to speak to them regularly and report on U.S. goals—and casualties—but so far, they have gotten little beyond prerecorded videos of the president and some sound bites from various officials.

The American King Goes to War

America has been at war for nearly a week, but the president who started the war can’t explain why.
Either Iran’s nuclear program needed to be destroyed because Iran was “probably a week away” from having the material for a bomb, according to the Trump adviser Steve Witkoff, or Iran was “not enriching” uranium, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, or maybe Iran was threatening the United States and its allies bases in the region, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.