Today's Liberal News

Andrew Bacevich on Why Retired General and Raytheon Official Lloyd Austin Should Not Head Pentagon

Joe Biden’s nominee for defense secretary, retired four-star Army General Lloyd Austin, would make history as the first African American to lead the Pentagon if confirmed by the Senate. But Austin can only be confirmed if he secures a waiver from Congress due to laws designed to preserve the civilian control of the military, and several leading Democratic senators have indicated they would oppose granting a waiver.

Amid deteriorating jail conditions, Philadelphia Community Bail Fund steps in

For more than four months, women and gender nonconforming people in three Philadelphia jails have been living with mold, roach and rat infestations, extreme heat and cold, poor ventilation, and ongoing abuse from correctional officers. Conditions like those would be deplorable even if the country wasn’t in the midst of a pandemic, but with the added threat of COVID-19, they may be deadly.

The electors have voted and Joe Biden is confirmed as president-elect

With the vote of California’s electors, President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win over Donald Trump is formalized. States have been voting throughout the day, but it took California’s 55 votes to bring Biden over the 270 needed to win.

Hawaii’s four electors still have to cast their votes, but Biden’s win is sealed. Not that we should expect a gracious—or any—acknowledgement from Trump.

Bill Barr’s Departure Reveals the Hollowness of Trumpism

In most ways, it would be hard to find two men much more different than Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr: One is a slow-drawling anti-immigration fanatic from Alabama; the other is a dry, intellectually engaged bagpiper from New York. One spent his career on the fringes of conservatism before a sudden late-career elevation to the Cabinet; the other is a consummate establishment figure who led the Justice Department twice, three decades apart.

The Atlantic Daily: How Science Beat the Virus

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Ricardo TomásScience defeated the coronavirus, my colleague Ed Yong reports in our latest cover story
This spring, thousands of researchers paused their projects in order to study the deadly disease, COVID-izing their disciplines.

The Singular Achievement of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

My uncle once told me about a visit he made to an English friend of his, who was going through a divorce. “Right,” said this friend, “I’ve got a bottle of whiskey and the DVD of Tinker Tailor … We’re going to stay up all night and watch the whole thing.”Not the first choice, one might think, for someone in need of a bit of cheering up.

John le Carré Knew England’s Secrets

Writing about John le Carré is intimidating. Writing an appreciation after he has died feels doubly so. In some ways, this fear says much about the England that le Carré was so masterful at capturing: the class consciousness and fear of straying beyond your place. Le Carré inhabited an England beyond my horizons, not just the cloak-and-dagger one, but the one that exists at Eton and at Oxford and in many parts of London, lands that remain foreign to most of us.

I’m Really Sorry, but Let’s Talk About That Chicken Movie

Late last month, the crew of a helicopter surveying a desolate stretch of the Utah desert came across an unexpected finding: a metal structure, tall and thin, gleaming among the matte-red rocks. Soon after, the object vanished. But people began finding similar ones, in California and Romania and the Netherlands—elongated prisms studding the earth, their provenance, for the most part, unknown.