Today's Liberal News

Sports Stories for the Sports-Averse

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
My colleague Gisela Salim-Peyer put it bluntly last weekend: “Many women love sports, but I am not one of them. I don’t want to play any sports, and I certainly don’t want to watch.” I’m personally quite aligned with Gisela here, but this year, I’m finding myself invested in the Olympics.

The Police Department That Refused to Solve a Murder

In February—two months after The Atlantic reported on a Hawaii murder case that sent an innocent man to prison for 23 years—Barry Scheck, the defense-bar legend and a co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York, contacted a former FBI lawyer named Stephen Kramer to ask him for help finally solving the murder.

Money War: How the U.S. Unleashed Economic Warfare Across the Globe, from Venezuela to Iran

We look at a new Washington Post investigation titled “Money War” that traces the effects of U.S. sanctions under the last four presidents: Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. According to the report, the U.S government has instituted, in some form or another, sanctions against a third of all other countries around the world, despite no clear evidence that they are effective in influencing target nations’ politics, and in fact may often entrench the power of ruling parties.

The Problem With Donald Trump’s VP Theory

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.
Vice-presidential candidates are highly scrutinized, but Donald Trump recently said that they have no impact on a race. Is he right?
First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
David A. Graham: Trump is suddenly running scared.

The 2024 U.S. Presidential Race: A Cheat Sheet

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The 2024 presidential election was already like none in living memory: a matchup between the sitting president and a former president.
Then it got even more historically unusual.

Olympics Photo of the Day: Splashdown

Molly Darlington / Reuters
The sport of Kayak Cross makes its Olympic debut in Paris this year. At the beginning of a run, four kayakers drop about 15 feet from a ramp into the water below, then begin paddling as fast as they can down a white-water obstacle course, battling one another along the way. Here, Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani, originally from Iran and now part of the Refugee Olympic Team, drops in at the start of his time-trial run in Vaires-sur-Marne, France.

The Generative-AI Revolution May Be a Bubble

This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here.
For the past two years, the biggest tech firms have begun spending historic amounts of money to develop generative-AI products and spread them across the web. The build-out may demand a trillion dollars or more of investment across the economy this decade—more than the Apollo missions or the interstate-highway system.

James Baldwin’s Most Underappreciated Talent

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here.
James Baldwin—the playwright, activist, orator, and novelist—was born 100 years ago today. It is no fringe opinion that his work changed American letters forever. (Earlier this year, for example, The Atlantic named Giovanni’s Room one of the greatest American novels of the past century.) Today, Vann R.

Prisoner Swap with Russia “Offers a Possible Pathway” to Peace in Ukraine, Says Katrina vanden Heuvel

We speak with The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel about the prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and several other countries on Thursday that saw the release of 24 people, with 16 prisoners in Russia traded for eight Russian nationals held in the U.S., Germany and elsewhere. It was the biggest exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West since the Cold War era. Among those released are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S.

Picking Shapiro as VP Would Remind Voters Kamala Harris Is Liberal, Not Progressive: Marc Lamont Hill

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is reportedly at the top of the list of potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House. But many progressives have raised alarm about Shapiro’s record, including his support for corporate tax breaks and school vouchers, his relationship with oil and gas companies, and his demonization of pro-Palestinian protesters.

“Simply Lying”: Marc Lamont Hill Slams Trump’s NABJ Interview, Attacks on VP Harris’s Racial Identity

We speak with journalist Marc Lamont Hill amid Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican presidential nominee was interviewed this week at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he claimed Harris “happened to turn Black” for political expediency, even though she has always been open about her Jamaican and Indian American parents and identifies as both Black and South Asian.