Today's Liberal News

Why Trump Changed His Mind on Kristi Noem

Kristi Noem played “Hot Mama” as the walk-up song for her formal introduction at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in January 2025. President Trump had put her in charge of his signature campaign promise—the largest mass-deportation campaign in U.S. history—and Noem took a fast, flashy approach to the job. She dressed as a Border Patrol agent and an ICE officer, and rode horseback at Mount Rushmore in ads.

Who Is the U.S. Actually at War With Right Now?

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Donald Trump campaigned on the idea that electing him was the best way to avoid wars. He has referred to himself as the “peace president,” going so far as to complain that he hadn’t won a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Glaring Oversight in the U.S. War Plan

The United States and Israel took at least a month to prepare their attack on Iran, assembling the largest arsenal of aircraft carriers and fighter jets that the Middle East has seen in decades. But one gap in their planning became clear during the first days of the war, as the United States and its allies used their most advanced anti-aircraft systems to shoot down swarms of cheap, easily replaceable Iranian drones.

Jay Bhattacharya Might Get His COVID Capstone

This time last year, Jay Bhattacharya’s main claim to fame was, in essence, a hot take on COVID. In 2020, Bhattacharya, then a health economist at Stanford University without specialized training in infectious disease, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter that downplayed the risk of COVID and called for most of society to reopen before the arrival of vaccines.

How Kristi Noem Lost Her Job

Updated at 7:52 p.m. ET on March 5, 2026
Kristi Noem’s autobiography includes the harrowing story of her decision to put down her dog, Cricket. The ill-fated pet had first ruined a hunting foray by going “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life,” and went on to kill several chickens belonging to a neighbor. Noem then decided she had to shoot Cricket. “It was not a pleasant job,” she recounts, “but it had to be done.

“Armed Only with a Camera”: Oscar-Nominated Doc Honors Brent Renaud and Other “Fallen Journalists”

We speak with filmmaker Craig Renaud, the director of Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, an HBO documentary about his brother, photojournalist Brent Renaud, who was killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine in 2022. March 13 marks the fourth anniversary of Brent’s death, and the film is both a tribute to him and “a bigger story about all the journalists who were being killed,” says Craig.

Geeta Gandbhir on Her Double Oscar Noms for “The Perfect Neighbor” & “The Devil Is Busy”

Geeta Gandbhir has made history as the first woman to receive Oscar nominations for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short in the same year. Her feature-length film, The Perfect Neighbor, looks at the case of Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four who was fatally shot in 2023 by her white neighbor. Her documentary short, The Devil Is Busy, chronicles a day on the frontlines in the battle for reproductive rights at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta.

“Why Are We Going to War?”: Former U.S. Middle East Officials Say Trump Has “No Clear Plan” on Iran

As the U.S. and Israel continue their bombardment of Iran and the conflict spreads throughout the region, we speak with two former U.S. government officials with experience in Middle East policy. Hala Rharrit is a career diplomat who resigned from the State Department in 2024 to protest the Biden administration’s Gaza policy, and Jasmine El-Gamal served as a Middle East adviser at the Pentagon during the Obama administration.