Today's Liberal News

Dear James: I Have Debilitating Stage Fright

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.
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Dear James,
I have stage fright. I’ve had it since I was a little kid trying to perform at elementary-school talent shows.

Indonesia’s ‘Silvermen’ Beg for Survival

Yasuyoshi Chiba, a photojournalist with AFP, recently spent a rainy day in Jakarta with three men who had coated themselves in metallic paint, becoming “manusia silver,” or silvermen, seeking donations from passersby. Rising prices and growing levels of unemployment have resulted in a recent rise in begging across Jakarta. The group followed here say that on a good day, they can earn as much as 200,000 rupiah ($12).

If I Stayed, I Would’ve Died: Journalist Abubaker Abed on “Agonizing” Decision to Leave Gaza

We speak with 22-year-old Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed in Ireland after he evacuated Gaza last month suffering from malnutrition and under threat for his reporting on Israel’s genocide. Abed describes himself as an “accidental war correspondent” and hoped to become a sports journalist and commentator before the start of the war, but spent much of the last two years reporting on daily death and destruction.

“Unprecedented” in U.S. History: Trump & Family Rake In Money from Gulf States, Crypto & Real Estate

As President Donald Trump meets with leaders in the Middle East this week, we look at how his administration and family have opened wide to foreign powers and wealthy interests willing to spend big to gain influence. Top buyers of Trump’s novelty cryptocurrency have spent millions as part of a contest to have dinner with the president. Trump’s sons Donald Jr.

Weight-Loss Drugs Aren’t Really About Weight

Ever since the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk realized that GLP-1 drugs were useful for more than diabetes, doctors and researchers have struggled to answer a deceptively simple question: Who should be taking them? The medications are highly effective at inducing weight loss, and most Americans are overweight or have obesity.

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Plane

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Donald Trump is in talks to accept a $400 million gift from a foreign government.

Trump Sides With the Israeli People Against Netanyahu

Today, Hamas freed Edan Alexander, its sole remaining living American hostage. The release was the result of a back-channel dialogue between the United States and the terrorist group ahead of Donald Trump’s arrival in the region this week. Announcing the news on social media, the president heralded the event not as a one-off, but as a step “to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones.