Today's Liberal News

Fmr. Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: Netanyahu Is “Trying to Do Everything to Prevent a Deal”

Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy discusses ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued hostility to compromise and the Biden administration’s ineffectual mediation. Contrary to its claims of brokering peace, the U.S. “will continue to send the weapons” Israel uses to devastate Gaza, unremittingly fueling an increasingly unpopular war, says Levy, who is now president of the U.S.

Should Biden Step Aside? Wajahat Ali & Norman Solomon Debate Democratic Options for 2024 Race

As calls mount for President Joe Biden to step down as the presumptive Democratic Party nominee over concerns surrounding his mental and physical capacity to lead, we host a debate between two longtime members of the Democratic Party: Wajahat Ali, who recently authored a column subtitled “Biden Is Very Old and Out of Touch, and Here’s Why You Should Vote for Him,” and Norman Solomon of RootsAction.org, which sponsors the Step Aside Joe campaign.

Would You Put Your Health in AI’s Hands?

This is Atlantic Intelligence, a limited-run series in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the entrepreneur Arianna Huffington spoke with my colleague Charlie Warzel earlier this week about their ambitions to remake the American health-care system with generative AI.

The “Song of the Summer” Is a Myth

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.
Summer is in full swing, and everywhere I go, I hear Sabrina Carpenter’s catchy, somewhat nonsensical “Espresso.

Houston Is on a Path to an All-Out Power Crisis

For the 2.2 million people in Houston who lost power Monday after Hurricane Beryl swept through the city, the first question they had was When will the electricity be back on? The city’s utility, CenterPoint Energy, didn’t yet have an online outage map to monitor. There was, however, a work-around. “The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker,” tweeted a user who goes by the name BBQ Bryan, alongside a screenshot of the beloved local fast-food chain’s location map on its app.

AI Has Become a Technology of Faith

An important thing to realize about the grandest conversations surrounding AI is that, most of the time, everyone is making things up. This isn’t to say that people have no idea what they’re talking about or that leaders are lying. But the bulk of the conversation about AI’s greatest capabilities is premised on a vision of a theoretical future.

If the Moon Landing Were a Romantic Comedy

Near the end of The Truman Show, Truman Burbank (played by Jim Carrey) flees his home in the middle of the night. He’s come to believe that his surroundings are fake, that the people around him are actors, and that everything he does is being broadcast as “authentic” entertainment to an audience. He’s right, of course: Watching over him is the godlike Christof (Ed Harris), the program’s mastermind. “Cue the sun,” orders Christof.

“I’m Bored, So I Shoot”: How Israeli Troops Are Authorized to Shoot Palestinians Virtually at Will

We speak with reporter Oren Ziv of +972 Magazine, whose latest investigation details how Israeli forces in Gaza have been authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will. Six soldiers who fought in Gaza describe a near-total absence of firing regulations, with soldiers shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, leaving corpses to rot on the streets and more.

In Rare News Conf., Biden Vows to Stay in Race, Defending Record on Ukraine, NATO & More: A Roundtable

As the world watched Thursday night, President Biden held his first solo press conference this year, after hosting a NATO conference in which he accidentally referred to Ukrainian President Zelensky as Russian President Putin before quickly correcting himself. While speaking with reporters, Biden defended his record and vowed to “finish the job,” but at one point referred to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.

“Peace, Not NATO”: As Biden Hosts Leaders in D.C., German MP Decries NATO’s 75 Years of War & Hypocrisy

President Biden is hosting heads of government from NATO member nations for a three-day summit in Washington, D.C., to mark the 75th anniversary of the expanding nuclear-armed military alliance as leaders pledge to continue supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. We get response from German lawmaker Sevim Dağdelen, who is in D.C. to protest the summit and is the author of the new book NATO: A Reckoning with the Atlantic Alliance.

Their Goal Is Total Ethnic Cleansing: Mustafa Barghouti on Israel’s Expulsion Order for Gaza City

A panel of United Nations independent experts has accused Israel of engaging in a campaign of starvation and genocide in Gaza as the effects of the famine are being felt across Gaza. Palestinian physician and activist Mustafa Barghouti says “what we see today is a purposeful act of starvation” and that the real intention of the Israeli government has never changed. “Their main goal is the total ethnic cleansing of all of Gaza people and all of the Gaza Strip.

Biden’s Heartbreaking Press Conference

So here’s the heartbreak.
Three-quarters of an hour of detailed, sophisticated answers. Mastery of detail. Knowledge of world personalities. Courtesy to the reporters before him. Accurate recall of facts and figures. Justified pride in a record of accomplishment. A spark of sharp humor at the very end.
Also: Verbal stumbles. Thoughts half-finished. Strangled vocal intonations. Flares of unprompted anger.

An Attempt to Check the Supreme Court’s Power

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.
Progressive members of the House have put forth articles of impeachment against two conservative Supreme Court justices. The impeachment won’t actually advance, but it may help chip away at the Court’s irreproachable image.

The Sad Future of Grocery Shopping

A well-stocked grocery store is a wondrous place. Among the gleaming pyramids of fruit, golden rows of bread, and freezers crammed with ice cream, time and space collapse. A perfectly ripe apple might have been picked a year ago; a cut of beef may have come from an Australian cow. Grocery stores defy seasons and geography to assure shoppers that they can have anything they want, anytime.

A Hundred Years of Mocking Vegetarians

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here.
Anthony Bourdain was beloved for his openness to new experiences, for his willingness to eat anything—brains; shark; cobra heart, still beating—with anyone. But he did reserve one bias: The man hated vegetarians.

Fmr. Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: Netanyahu Is “Trying to Do Everything to Prevent a Deal”

Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy discusses ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued hostility to compromise and the Biden administration’s ineffectual mediation. Contrary to its claims of brokering peace, the U.S. “will continue to send the weapons” Israel uses to devastate Gaza, unremittingly fueling an increasingly unpopular war, says Levy, who is now president of the U.S.

Should Biden Step Aside? Wajahat Ali & Norman Solomon Debate Democratic Options for 2024 Race

As calls mount for President Joe Biden to step down as the presumptive Democratic Party nominee over concerns surrounding his mental and physical capacity to lead, we host a debate between two longtime members of the Democratic Party: Wajahat Ali, who recently authored a column subtitled “Biden Is Very Old and Out of Touch, and Here’s Why You Should Vote for Him,” and Norman Solomon of RootsAction.org, which sponsors the Step Aside Joe campaign.