Today's Liberal News

“Horror and Anxiety”: Death Toll in Iran Tops 780 as Trump Says U.S. Can Fight “Forever”

The U.S. is sending more troops and fighter jets to the Middle East as the regional war expands four days after the U.S. and Israel assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and struck sites across Iran. At least 787 people have died so far in Iran, according to local authorities. Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi says the feeling on the ground is of “horror and anxiety” and that U.S.

Former St. Louis Congressmember Cori Bush Runs for Seat Again After AIPAC Targeted Her in 2024

Cori Bush is running for Congress again. Bush previously served two terms as a Democratic congressmember for Missouri, until she was unseated in 2024 following a multimillion-dollar attack campaign run by pro-Israel groups. Bush, a community activist who participated in the 2014 Ferguson uprising over the police killing of Michael Brown, was an outspoken critic of Israel in Congress and introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in October 2023.

Trump Has Given America a Constitutional Dilemma

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Donald Trump has taken America into war with a country whose population is approximately the size of Iraq’s and Afghanistan’s combined. He has done this without making a case to the American people, and without approval of any kind from their elected representatives.

The Fortress We Gave Away

During the planning for President Trump’s latest strike on Iran, Britain refused to allow the United States to launch air attacks from the U.S.-U.K. base at Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean. Only a few hours’ flying time from the Middle East, Diego Garcia offers airfields long enough for the heaviest bombers and has naval docks large enough for aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines. It is British territory, left over from colonial times, but was jointly developed under a U.S.-U.K.

The Big Story: The Iran War

On Wednesday, March 4, Atlantic staff writers Tom Nichols, Toluse Olorunnipa, and Missy Ryan will discuss the United States and Israel’s joint attack on Iran with staff writer Vivian Salama. In this virtual event, they’ll discuss the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Trump administration’s response, the complicated history of regime changes, and what comes next. Attendees can submit questions in advance for The Atlantic’s journalists to answer live during the session.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Crack Open a Krating Daeng

There’s an old rule of thumb that you retain about 10 percent of what you read, 20 percent of what you hear, 30 percent of what you see via image or video, and so on up the ladder of experiential learning, until you get to a 90 percent retention rate for the things you learn by doing yourself.
The teeny problem is that none of this is backed by science; it’s a bastardization of the “cone of learning” that the education theorist Edgar Dale developed but never intended to be prescriptive.

The Israel of October 6 Is Never Coming Back

Just about the only thing that the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump have agreed on is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was too timid to pull the trigger. “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” a senior Obama official told The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg in 2014, explaining that the Israeli leader was “scared to launch wars.

Trump’s War on Iran Violates International Law & U.S. Constitution: War Crimes Prosecutor Reed Brody

The United States and Israel launched a devastating war against Iran on Saturday without approval by the U.S. Congress or support from the United Nations Security Council, making President Donald Trump’s attack illegal under both domestic and international law, says veteran war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody.
“The U.N. Charter is not ambiguous,” says Brody.

Israel Wants Ability to Attack Anyone at Any Time: Israeli Analyst Ori Goldberg

As we continue our coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, we speak with Israeli analyst Ori Goldberg in Tel Aviv. He says “there is a broad embrace of this attack” among Israelis, bringing together the country’s liberal, right-wing, religious and settler groups.
“They all seem to agree, broadly and deeply, that this war is inevitable,” says Goldberg, who adds that nobody has articulated a clear strategic vision for the war.

Iranian American Scholars Denounce U.S.-Israeli Attack, Warn Regime Change Efforts Will Backfire

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its third day, dragging much of the Middle East into armed conflict, we speak with two Iranian American scholars about the situation.
“It’s quite a devastating attack on the infrastructure of the country, both in terms of the state infrastructure and civilian infrastructure,” says Golnar Nikpour, associate professor of modern Iranian history at Dartmouth College.