Today's Liberal News

Dear James: When My Husband Speaks, My Brain Turns to Mush

Editor’s Note: Is anything ailing, torturing, or nagging at you? Are you beset by existential worries? Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles readers’ questions. Tell him about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems at dearjames@theatlantic.com.
Don’t want to miss a single column? Sign up to get “Dear James” in your inbox.
Dear James,
I’ve been married to the best guy for almost 14 years. He is an awesome dad to our wild boys, makes exceptional burgers, and is weirdly fun to watch TV with.

Israel’s “Horrific Trifecta” of Starvation, Siege & Bombings Creates Maternal Health Disaster: Nurse

Pediatric nurse Sandra Adler Killen has just returned from a third medical mission to Gaza, where she says, “We have this horrific trifecta of starvation, of lack of medicine and supplies, and bombings.” She calls Israel’s ongoing assault and siege of civilians in Gaza an “annihilation,” with skyrocketing rates of anemia, birth defects and premature births.

Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Winning a Pulitzer: I Can’t Celebrate While Gaza Is Starving

Palestinian writer Mosab Abu Toha has just been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his essays about the Palestinian experience in the face of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins Democracy Now! to discuss his work, the necessity of advocating for Palestinian rights, and the violence of Israeli occupation. Abu Toha, who evacuated Gaza in late 2023 after being arrested, beaten and detained by the Israeli military, now resides in Syracuse, New York.

Trump’s Newest Grift: Molly White on First Family’s Cryptocurrency Empire & Gutting of Regulations

Donald Trump has raised nearly a billion dollars from his various cryptocurrency schemes, says researcher Molly White. “He is really allowing for bribery and the types of corruption that we’ve never seen in the American presidency,” White says. She lays out how the Trump family profits from cryptocurrency while directly influencing policy and regulations, encouraging the transfer of wealth to the industry despite its “enormous risk of fraud and collapse.

“Palestine Is Really the Center of the World”: Angela Davis on Gaza, Black-Jewish Solidarity & Trump

More than 100 days into President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, we speak with the renowned abolitionist, author and activist Angela Davis, who discusses Gaza, Trump and more.
Davis, who spoke at a Jewish Voice for Peace conference in Baltimore on Thursday, says, “We find ourselves in a very difficult moment, a moment of grief, a moment of witnessing the apartheid and the genocide unfolding in a way that we had never imagined before.

Airport Detentions Have Travelers ‘Freaked Out’

Jeff Joseph, a 53-year-old immigration attorney in Colorado, has recently started taking precautions while traveling abroad that, at another time, he would have considered a little paranoid. He leaves his phone at home. Instead, he carries a “burner’’—a device scrubbed of his contact list and communications—in case U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers send him to secondary inspection or seize his electronics when he returns home.

How the World Became Awash in Synthetics

During the crucial early weeks of pregnancy, when fetal cells knit themselves into a brain and organs and fingers and lips, a steady flow of man-made chemicals pulses through the umbilical cord. Scientists once believed that the placenta filtered out most of these pollutants, but now they know that is not the case. Along with nutrients and oxygen, numerous synthetic substances travel to the womb, permeating the fetus’s blood and tissues.

Trump Is Hiding Behind His Lawyers

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.
Perhaps no president—including the ones with law degrees—has spent as much time around attorneys as Donald Trump. As a young man, he was infamously mentored by the ruthless Roy Cohn. Throughout his career, he’s used litigation as a tool of business, public relations, and intimidation.

Breakfast Is Breaking

In the morning weekday rush, any breakfast will suffice. A bowl of cereal, buttered toast, yogurt with granola—maybe avocado toast, if you’re feeling fancy. But when there’s time for something heartier, nothing satisfies like the classic American breakfast plate, soothing for both stomach and soul.