Today's Liberal News
Trump’s chaotic economy is causing headaches for Democrats in New Jersey’s governor race
The crowded contest in the Garden State shows how hard it is to address pocketbook issues.
Warren Buffett shocks shareholders by announcing his intention to retire at the end of the year
Earlier, Buffett warned Saturday about the dire global consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
‘Anything can happen’: Trump doesn’t seem fazed by recession worries
Trump has blamed shaky economic numbers on his predecessor.
Democrats look to Trump’s poor economic numbers with anxious optimism
Following its latest round of focus groups, Navigator Research is urging Democrats to proactively push their own economic policies.
Warning signs for Trump as pessimistic outlook on the economy grows among Americans
Trump’s winning issue is becoming one of his biggest liabilities as multiple polls this week reveal growing disapproval numbers on the economy.
The GOP War on Medicaid: 14 Million Could Lose Healthcare to Fund Tax Breaks for Rich
House Republicans have successfully pushed forward President Trump’s budget proposals to slash Medicaid and food stamps, putting millions of low-income Americans at risk. Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, a healthcare consumer advocacy organization, says the $715 billion reduction is “literally the biggest cut to the Medicaid program in history.
“They Want to Silence Me”: Columbia Student Mohsen Mahdawi on ICE Jail, Palestine, Activism, Buddhism
In his first live interview since his release from ICE detention, Columbia University student and Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi recounts the traumatic experience of his arrest and incarceration. Mahdawi, a green card holder who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, was arrested in Vermont on April 14 when he appeared for what he was told would be a citizenship interview, and spent more than two weeks in U.S.
“Surveillance Humanitarianism”: As Gaza Starves, U.S.-Israeli Plan Would Further Weaponize Food
Israel has imposed a complete block on humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 2, with hundreds of trucks with lifesaving aid waiting at the border. Now many of Gaza’s kitchens have closed, and Palestinians face mass starvation as rations run low. We speak with Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine.
Biden diagnosed with aggressive form of prostate cancer
The disease included “metastasis to the bone,” according to a statement from his personal office.
The Subtlety of the Macho-Men SNL Sketch
There’s a low-stakes thrill in eavesdropping on strangers from afar, especially if the exchange descends into chaos. Yet a sketch in last night’s season finale of Saturday Night Live—which revolved around two couples at a bar boisterously fighting for a preferred table as two men watched nearby, whiskies in hand—raised the stakes of voyeurism in fascinating ways.
The New Spiritual Leader on Campus
On May 24, 1961, the Yale University chaplain William Sloane Coffin Jr. led a group of Freedom Riders on a 160-mile bus ride from Atlanta, Georgia, to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregation laws. The voyage and his subsequent arrest turned Coffin into a national figure in the fight for civil rights. Yet even as he made headlines, Coffin remained committed to another, quieter aspect of his role as a college chaplain.
Old News
I’m more at home in The Past, want though I may
To live in this lonesome place The Present Moment.
I share a stack of magazines with someone
Who reads the new ones from the top. The bottom,
Salted with gilded ephemera, outspent ads
And failing or faded fads, is just my meat.
Praying that I don’t blind myself to horrors
I study the Times online to behold the face
Of fascism and its disregarding hand.
My Shipwreck Story
Illustrations by Dadu Shin
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.
The Evening was small in the shadow of the other boats. When I arrived at the dock, it was well past midnight, and a misty rain was falling—the edge of a storm far out at sea. Mick, the captain, was blunt and salty; not old, but weathered. He led me on board and pointed down the ladder to the hull, where I immediately got into bed and fell asleep.
How to Make Friendships Last Your Whole Life
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.
Updated at 3:34 p.m. ET on May 18, 2025.
Many analogies have been made of friendship—it’s like shifting seasons, or a plant, or a really good bra—but I picture friendship most clearly as a house, jointly occupied.
America’s Cities Are Finally Growing Again—but There’s a Big Catch
Doomers thought cities would collapse post-pandemic. The numbers tell a much different story.
Universal Tariffs Go from Bonkers to Blanket
The UK has struck a deal with the US to avoid bigger tariffs but keeps the 10% blanket tariff in place.
One New York Times Opinion Column Soared Above the Rest in Getting the Trump Era Wrong. It Just Died.
It had been around since Trump’s first term. Maybe the paper finally had enough.
Why the 1 senator who can rein in RFK Jr. isn’t calling him out
Bill Cassidy, the senator who secured Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promise to protect vaccines, will question the health secretary at a hearing Wednesday.
Trump admin cancels layoffs for some health workers ahead of Kennedy hearing
The move reinstates some employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — which lost more than 90 percent of its workforce.
This Republican has long wanted to overhaul Medicaid. Now he has to sell members on a compromise
The Energy and Commerce Committee chair is about to be put to the test.
Wellness CEO files ethics complaint against top RFK Jr. adviser
An internal MAHA battle is breaking out between an HHS employee who co-founded a health care payments company and a CEO of a rival company.
Is Aziz Ansari Sorry?
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Your Opinions on Her Wardrobe Are Probably Unwelcome
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
What Role Does HR Play in the #MeToo Era?
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Trump’s chaotic economy is causing headaches for Democrats in New Jersey’s governor race
The crowded contest in the Garden State shows how hard it is to address pocketbook issues.
Warren Buffett shocks shareholders by announcing his intention to retire at the end of the year
Earlier, Buffett warned Saturday about the dire global consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.