Today's Liberal News

The State That Decided to Topple a Political Giant

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.
To national audiences, the news that a North Carolina state senator had apparently lost a Republican primary race by two—yes, two—votes seemed like one of those quirky election stories that come around every year, such as when the mayor of Boca Raton, Florida, recently won by five votes.

Mike Krzyzewski’s Final Insult to Duke’s Haters

Bad news to the many, many Duke-basketball haters out there: It appears that you’re going to have to put up with the Blue Devils in all of their punchable smugness, with their fade haircuts and the skinny blue letters on their swelling chests, their floor-smacking defense and their clean, net-twitching shots, for at least another day, if not another generation.

The Disney Princess Who Wasn’t

Taylor Frankie Paul’s turn on The Bachelorette was meant to be a fairy tale fit for reality, an age-old love story made modern by a heroine who had risen to fame as an antihero. Frankie Paul first gained notoriety as an online influencer and came to ABC’s soft-lit dating show through her role on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, where—as a reliable purveyor of high-stakes melodramas and telegenic tantrums—she has helped make the Hulu series a hit.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: A World Record

You’ve got a very special lineup today: the worldwide record holder for most entertaining Atlantic-branded trivia published on March 20, 2026.
And by the way, did you know that in addition to the nearly 70,000 active records that Guinness maintains, it has a handful that it has consciously discontinued? Largest pie fight is out on the grounds of food waste, and largest penny pyramid ended in 1984 out of (prescient!) fear of a penny shortage.

Disenfranchise Tens of Millions? Trump’s SAVE Act Targets Women, Poor, Rural & Trans Voters

Experts are calling it “the worst voter suppression bill ever seriously considered by Congress.” As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on a Trump-backed voter ID bill known as the SAVE Act, millions of citizens who lack easy access to its required forms of documentation are now at risk of disenfranchisement. “Republicans are singularly focused on making it harder to vote and pursuing this MAGA fever dream,” explains Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones.

Report from Beirut: 1,000+ Dead, 1M+ Displaced, Many Fear Long-Term Occupation of Southern Lebanon

As Israel continues to pummel Lebanon in its resumed war against the country and the Hezbollah paramilitary, we get an update from Associated Press reporter Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut. “If you compare this particular war to the last one, less than two years ago, what happened in the past three weeks is what happened in the past seven or eight months,” says Chehayeb, who describes masses of displaced people and fears of an imminent ground invasion.

Labor Icon Dolores Huerta, 95, Reveals She, Too, Was Raped by Cesar Chavez; Speaks to Maria Hinojosa

A major New York Times investigation details the late co-founder of the United Farm Workers Cesar Chavez’s sexual abuse of women and girls. The revelations about Chavez’s history of grooming and abuse have sent shockwaves through the labor movement and California, where officials are already moving to cancel or rename public celebrations planned in his honor. Chavez is also accused of sexually assaulting fellow labor rights icon and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, now 95.

“Warmongers Come for the Media”: Trump Threatens Media with “Treason” Charges over Iran War Coverage

The Trump administration is escalating threats against news organizations, with President Trump suggesting outlets should face “treason” charges for disseminating false information. Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has also threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. This all comes as allies of President Trump consolidate their control over several major media outlets.

What’s Going on With the IRS?

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.
Etched into the facade of the Internal Revenue Service’s headquarters, just above a trio of limestone arches, is a quote from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.

There’s Only One Reason to Cold Plunge

Cold-­water bathing has a long history as a health hack. The ancient Greeks and Romans partook to treat fevers. Eighteenth-­century mental institutions employed a tactic called the bain de surprise, suddenly dunking their patients in cold water to jolt them out of their depression or psychosis. (Some doctors aimed to wet only the head to cure “hot brain.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Gruesome Fairy Tales

Answer here my questions three, and quizzing pride shall come to thee!
And by the way, I’m sure you know that most of our warm and fuzzy fairy tales originally had horrifying endings, but let’s run through a few of them: The little mermaid turns into sea foam, Sleeping Beauty awakens only during childbirth, and Snow White’s wicked stepmother has to dance in burning iron shoes until she dies.
So if you see a fairy godmother out there, do not engage.
Until tomorrow.