Today's Liberal News

A Chaotic End to the Epstein Files

Updated at 8:25 p.m. on January 30, 2026
Reporters, lawmakers, and ordinary Americans are poring over a deluge of new files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case today, following the latest release from the Department of Justice. This release is substantially larger than any previous ones, with 3 million pages of documents, more than 180,000 photos, and more than 2,000 videos, according to the DOJ. The website they were uploaded to—which has the elegant URL Justice.

‘She Works on Levels That People Don’t Even Know’

In 1988, shortly after the release of his film Beetlejuice, the director Tim Burton highlighted a cast member who he felt stole the show: Catherine O’Hara, who played the snobbishly over-the-top matriarch Delia Deetz. “Catherine’s so good, maybe too good,” he marveled in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “She works on levels that people don’t even know. I think she scares people because she operates at such high levels.

Trump’s Fed-Chair Pick Is an Interest-Rate Hawk—Or Is He?

Cue the bankers’ equivalent of white smoke: Donald Trump has finally named his pick to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. This morning, Trump announced that he will nominate Kevin Warsh, a former Wall Street banker and Fed governor, to lead America’s central bank. Unlike some of the other contenders for the job, Warsh does not have a track record as an avowed Trump loyalist. For that reason, the response to his nomination from mainstream figures has been mostly positive.

“Prevent the Bloodshed”: Filmmaker Sepideh Farsi on Iran Protests & U.S. Threats of Military Strikes

The latest reliable estimates of the death toll in Iran’s recent nationwide protests are growing, potentially reaching the tens of thousands. Some estimates place the number of civilians killed by government forces at 30,000 or more. We play a rare eyewitness account of the deadly massacre of protesters in Rasht, Iran, and speak to the Iranian filmmaker and political dissident Sepideh Farsi, who says U.S. military intervention “would only worsen the situation.

350,000 Haitians in U.S. “at Risk of Losing Everything” After Trump Revokes Legal TPS Status

An estimated 350,000 Haitian immigrants are set to lose their temporary protected status, or TPS, on February 3, 2026, after President Trump signed an executive order to revoke their TPS shortly after coming into office. TPS holders live and work in the United States legally. During the 2024 presidential election, candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance spread racist invective about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Illinois.

“Cold-Blooded Murder”: Families of Trinidadian Men Killed in U.S. Boat Strike Sue Trump Admin

The families of two men from Trinidad killed in an October U.S. missile strike in the Caribbean are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing. The families of 26-year-old Chad Joseph and 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo say the two men were returning home from fishing and farming in Venezuela, not smuggling drugs as the Trump administration has claimed without evidence. Four others on the same boat were also killed.

“Hostile Takeovers”: As U.S. Claims Venezuela’s Oil, Trump Seeks “Vassal States” Across the World

In the aftermath of the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, Venezuela has agreed to submit a monthly budget to the Trump administration, which will release money from an account funded by oil sales. It’s a deal for the interim government led by Delcy Rodriguéz that historian Greg Grandin calls “governing under the blade.” In a further shift away from the nation-building foreign policy of the past several decades of U.S.

Abolish ICE: Rep. Delia Ramirez Calls for Defunding DHS & Defends Rep. Ilhan Omar After Attack

We speak with Congressmember Delia Ramirez following an attack on her colleague, Congressmember Ilhan Omar, who was sprayed with an unknown foul-smelling liquid while speaking at a town hall event in Minneapolis on Tuesday. “This is a direct influence of what you’re seeing from this president,” Ramirez says, criticizing Trump’s policies and his long history of attacking Omar in particular.
Ramirez also discusses her efforts in Congress to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Tesla Just Killed the Most Important Car of the 21st Century

Before Elon Musk, most electric vehicles seemed less like an alternative to gasoline than an argument in its favor. The sad state of affairs for EVs for many years was that they were slow, impractical, and largely enticing only if you lived with copious guilt over your carbon emissions.
Then Tesla came out with the Tesla Model S. The speedy, high-tech sedan didn’t just leave other EVs in the dust; it could compete with the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Trump Shrugs Off the Ilhan Omar Attack

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The attack on Representative Ilhan Omar on Tuesday was horrifying but depressingly predictable. Not only has the country seen a recent spree of political violence, but Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, has also been a frequent target of death threats.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: The Same Old Story

Updated with new questions at 3:45 p.m. ET on January 29, 2026.
In Princeton, New Jersey, a short stroll from the university you have heard of, there lies a little campus home to the Institute for Advanced Study. It was founded in 1930 not to confer degrees nor—God forbid!—to make money, nor even to conduct research toward any end in particular. The institute proclaims that its purpose is “the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.