Today's Liberal News

Dear James: Do I Need to Share My Diagnosis?

Editor’s Note: Is anything ailing, torturing, or nagging at you? Are you beset by existential worries? Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles readers’ questions. Tell him about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems at dearjames@theatlantic.com.
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Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister on U.S. Embargo, Trump’s Deportations, Israel’s War on Iran & Gaza

We speak with Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, about the Trump administration’s tightening restrictions on the country. Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has reinstated Cuba’s designation as a so-called state sponsor of terrorism, recommitted to upholding the decadeslong economic embargo and targeted Cuban immigrants for deportation.

“We Loved Her”: MN AG Keith Ellison Mourns His Friend Melissa Hortman, Slams Republican Rhetoric

Federal and state officials in Minnesota have announced murder and stalking charges against Vance Boelter, the man accused of assassinating Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in their home, as well as for shooting state Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Authorities say Boelter visited the homes of two other lawmakers on the night of the killings and had a hit list that included Planned Parenthood centers and the names of more Democratic politicians.

Preemptive Strike or Act of War? Israel Attacked Iran Amid Sinking Global Support for Assault on Gaza

Israel is intensifying its war on Iran, bombing the headquarters of the country’s national TV network on Monday and assassinating another top military leader. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran has responded with barrages of long-range missiles targeting Israel. Meanwhile, U.S.

“Millions of Lives at Risk”: USAID Cuts Lead to Global Rise in Death, Hunger, Poverty and Disease

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the termination of all remaining overseas employees of USAID to complete the dismantling of the six-decade-old agency. USAID was an early target of Elon Musk and DOGE. We look at the dismantling of USAID and what it means for people around the world to lose this lifeline, as detailed in a new Amnesty International report.

‘This War Is Not Helping Us’

Sepideh Qolian, a 30-year-old Iranian labor activist, spent two years in Tehran’s Evin Prison, where she wrote two books, one of them a celebrated prison memoir in the form of a baking cookbook. Just last week, Qolian was released—and three days later, Israeli missiles and drones began striking targets inside Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the Iranian people, telling them that his war can help them free themselves from their oppressive government.

12 Days in Trump’s America

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My Super-Special 79th Was Not Super Special

Dear Diary,
I did NOT have the birthday of my dreams last weekend! Everyone knows that 79 is the tank birthday. One is paper, 77 is emoluments, 78 you get to destroy one constitutional amendment of your choosing, 80 you get to become the state, but 79 is tanks, and I was so looking forward to my tank birthday.
I thought it was pretty clear what I wanted.

The Tyrant Test

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For as long as I’ve been alive, American presidents have defined tyrants by their willingness to use military force against their own people in reprisal for political opposition. This was a staple of Cold War presidential rhetoric, and it survived long into the War on Terror era.

Whose Choice? Whose Life?

The case of Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old Georgia nurse who has been brain-dead since early February, became the center of a skirmish between the country’s pro-choice and pro-life factions last month after an Atlanta news station’s interview with Smith’s mother, April Newkirk, was picked up by national media. Smith, Newkirk told a local news station, is being kept alive via life support without her family’s prior consent so that her unborn child can continue to gestate until delivery.