Today's Liberal News

How Trump Wants to Help Democrats

The one Republican elected official who has a serious and workable plan to end the government shutdown is, surprisingly enough, Donald Trump. The president’s idea is for the Senate to change its rules to allow the chamber to keep the government open with a majority vote, rather than to permit 41 senators to shut it down.
To be sure, Trump has not always framed his argument in the most cogent way.

Seeing the World Up Close

© Douglas Gimesy / cupoty.com
Splash. Shortlisted in the Animals category. A grey-headed flying fox makes a high-speed belly-dip in a pool of water.© Clay Bolt / cupoty.com
Orchid Bee Colombia. Insects.
© Marek Pál / cupoty.com
Sharp Bend. Insects.© Roman Willi / cupoty.com
Frog in the wall. Animals.© Donald Bolak / cupoty.com
Rose Thorns. Plants. A macro shot of a single rose thorn.© Nataliia Shinkevich / cupoty.com
Sunrise. Arachnids.© Jacqueline Kirk / cupoty.com
Island Hare. Animals.

“Epic Night for Democrats”: Party Wins Races Across the U.S. in Voter Rebuke to Trump

We get an overview of how Democrats won big across the United States in Tuesday’s elections, with Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts. Democratic Congressmember Mikie Sherrill won New Jersey’s governor’s race, and Abigail Spanberger flipped Virginia’s governorship. In California, voters approved a new congressional map that could help Democrats pick up five additional congressional seats in a move to counter Texas’s redistricting plan.

The Movement Behind Mamdani: Organizers & Supporters Celebrate Stunning Victory & Repudiation of Trump

Democracy Now! spoke with supporters celebrating Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City mayoral race Tuesday night. Volunteers with the Democratic Socialists and other campaign organizers at the Brooklyn Paramount victory party described the night as “surreal” and vowed to fight back against President Trump’s agenda. Sumaya Awad, a NYC-DSA member, describes Zohran as a politician “that doesn’t put the platform and the mission at the expense of anyone.

Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka on Denial of His U.S. Visa & Trump’s Threat to Strike Nigeria

We speak to Wole Soyinka, the 91-year-old celebrated Nigerian writer and first African Nobel laureate, who recently had his U.S. visa revoked after he made comments critical of Trump. As Trump threatens U.S. military action against Nigeria over claims of a “Christian genocide” in the country, Soyinka says, “when religious differences began to be invoked as a means of political power, and even social and economic powers, we’ve had unquestionably the issue of impunity.

Mamdani Is the Foil Trump Wants

Zohran Mamdani will be the unlikeliest mayor in New York City history. A 34-year-old backbench state assemblyman and self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Mamdani ran on the promise of affordability and was declared the winner not long after polls closed tonight. On his path to victory, he thrilled young voters in a way that few Democrats have in years. But perhaps no one was more delighted by his election than President Donald Trump.

The People Who Will Determine Whether Musk Becomes a Trillionaire

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Elon Musk wants to be anointed the world’s first trillionaire—but he swears it’s not about the money.
Over the past few weeks, the Tesla CEO has been demanding greater power over the electric-vehicle manufacturer that he has led for almost two decades.

This Could Be How the Shutdown Ends

On the first day of every month, Ethel Ingram goes to the grocery store with $171 in federally funded food stamps and a nearly impossible mission: Buy enough food for the next 30 days. She usually fails. A couple of weeks into most months, she’s forced to pursue another goal: visiting enough food banks to stock her refrigerator until the month ends and her account reloads. But this month, the government shutdown cut off food assistance to her and millions of others.

Americans on Food Stamps Have No Good Options

Millions of the poorest Americans are stuck in food-stamp limbo. They still do not know when their benefits will arrive—or if they will at all.
In the past few days, the government shutdown has thrown the food-stamp program, formally known as SNAP, into chaos. On Friday, after the Trump administration said that SNAP was on the verge of running out of money, a federal judge ordered the White House to tap into a reserve of funds and pay out billions of dollars in benefits.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia

Updated with new questions at 4:40 p.m. ET on November 4, 2025.
The 37-volume Naturalis Historia, written by the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, is the world’s earliest surviving encyclopedia. In the first century C.E., Pliny set out to collect the breadth of human knowledge, and millennia later, it’s still a great document for learning a little bit about everything. It has chapters on sugar, Germany, the rainbow, Cesarean births, the art of painting, and hypothetical antipodes.