Top Senate Republican says PEPFAR program in jeopardy
Foreign Affairs Relations Chair Jim Risch said money from the AIDS relief program paid for abortions.
Today's Liberal News
Restaurants Are Charging Top-Shelf Prices for Nonalcoholic Drinks. That’s Not a Bad Thing.
Because “Let’s grab a drink” is about more than the alcohol.
Pam Bondi, Trump’s Attorney General Pick, Has History of Corporate Lobbying and Election Denial
In her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, refused to answer Democrats’ questions about maintaining the Department of Justice’s independence from the president and pursuing his personal vendettas. Bondi also avoided directly answering questions about Trump’s vow to pardon January 6 defendants and refused to say Trump definitively lost the 2020 election.
Daniel Levy, Muhammad Shehada, Jeremy Scahill on Ceasefire Deal, Trump’s Role & Palestine’s Future
We host a roundtable on the planned Gaza ceasefire with former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy of the U.S./Middle East Project, Gazan analyst Muhammad Shehada of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and journalist Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News. We discuss how incoming President Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff pressured Israel to accept the deal and what it reveals about the outgoing Biden administration’s refusal to use its own leverage for the same end.
Report from Gaza: Ceasefire Announcement Raises Hopes, But Israel Kills 81 in New Attacks
We go first to Gaza for reaction from Palestinians to the long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas announced Wednesday. When implemented, the deal would mark the first pause in Israel’s relentless attack on the Gaza Strip in over a year. The ceasefire is expected to go into effect Sunday, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed a Cabinet vote required to approve it. Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to strike civilian-dense areas in Gaza.
How California Got to the Point Where the Wealthy Can Hire Private Firefighters
An executive went viral when he said he’d pay “any amount.
Buy Nothing Groups Seem to Offer Everything—Except a Chance to Get to Know Your Neighbors
The local online parent group, where I’d hoped to find new friends, was basically a random yard sale.
The Complications Are Spreading Like Wildfire
It’s not just their reputations at stake; it’s their livelihoods.
There Was One Sign That We Had to Leave L.A. We Never Thought We’d See It.
The city’s gargantuan highways—normally an impediment and an eyesore—suddenly felt like a bulwark.
SCOTUS agrees to hear challenge to Obamacare’s preventive care coverage
The court will decide the fate of the insurance mandate later this year.
Surgeon general’s call for alcohol warning label likely to fall flat in Congress
Vivek Murthy says alcohol causes cancer, but the industry still has many friends on Capitol Hill.
The government can’t ensure artificial intelligence is safe. This man says he can.
Brian Anderson is ready to shape the future of AI in health care — if Donald Trump will let him.
Is Aziz Ansari Sorry?
The Waves also discusses the Riverside Church controversy and the case of Sarah Milov.
Your Opinions on Her Wardrobe Are Probably Unwelcome
What we say matters, especially depending on whom we say it to.
What Role Does HR Play in the #MeToo Era?
The Waves also discusses the case against Jeffrey Epstein and Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble.
Stephen Miran is Trump’s pick to lead Council of Economic Advisers
Miran has called for a sweeping overhaul of the Fed to ensure greater political control over the central bank, including giving the president the power to fire board members at will.
Biden: Trump’s tax and tariffs plans are a ‘major mistake’
Five weeks after the election, the president took his sharpest swing at Trump’s policy plans.
Trump voters feel very differently about things now that he’s won, our new poll shows
A pair of POLITICO|Morning Consult polls, one conducted in the final days of the election and the other conducted after Trump won, show how public opinion has changed.
Prison Labor in the Spotlight as Incarcerated California Firefighters Risk Lives for $5-10/Day
Around Los Angeles, firefighting crews continue to battle the Palisades and Eaton fires and other smaller blazes. Nearly a thousand of the firefighters deployed to help contain the devastating fires are incarcerated. They have been working around the clock while earning as little as between $5.80 to $10.24 a day.
America Just Kinda, Sorta Banned Cigarettes
No drug is quite like nicotine. When it hits your bloodstream, you’re sent on a ride of double euphoria: an immediate jolt of adrenaline, like a strong cup of coffee injected directly into your brain, along with the calming effect of a beer. Nicotine is what gets people hooked on cigarettes, despite their health risks and putrid smell. It is, in essence, what cigarette companies are selling, and what they’ve always been selling.
How Netanyahu Misread His Relationship with Trump
Let us now praise Donald Trump. It’s hard for me not to choke on that phrase. But it was his bluster—his demand that Hamas release its remaining hostages before his inauguration, or else “all hell will break out”—that effectively ushered in a cease-fire, the beginning of the end of the Gaza war.
Although honesty requires crediting Trump, his success was not the product of magical powers or an indictment of Biden-administration diplomacy.
How Worried to Be About Bird Flu
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.
Over the past several months, bird-flu numbers have been steadily ticking up, especially among farmworkers who interact closely with cows. I spoke with my colleague Katherine J.
No One Will Remember Jack Smith’s Report
Just after noon next Monday, Donald Trump will take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, despite having, four years before, “engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.”
That is the conclusion of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s effort to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election.
The One Trump Pick Democrats Actually Like
Democrats spent more than $20 million last year to end then-Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s congressional career. Now, however, the Republican they worked so hard to defeat is their favorite nominee for President-Elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
Trump’s selection of Chavez-DeRemer for labor secretary came as a pleasant surprise to many Democrats and union leaders, who expected him to follow past Republican presidents and name a conservative hostile to organized labor.
Trump transition puts up guardrails around RFK Jr.
The transition team hired trusted conservatives to key HHS positions.
Queer and HIV+ in Gaza: A Young Man’s “Race Against Time” as Israel Blocks Medication
We speak with journalists Steven Thrasher and Afeef Nessouli about their new report for The Intercept, which examines how queer, HIV-positive Palestinians are struggling to survive in Gaza with limited access to medication due to Israel’s siege and ongoing attacks on the territory. The report centers on E.S., a young Palestinian man who is HIV-positive and who has been in “a race against time,” says Nessouli. “The genocide is making it impossible to get medication to people like E.S.
Meet the Military Vets Arrested for Disrupting Pete Hegseth’s Senate Confirmation Hearing
The Senate confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick to be defense secretary, was repeatedly disrupted Tuesday by protesters who denounced the nominee’s history of hateful remarks against women, LGBTQ people and others, as well as to demand an end to U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.