Today's Liberal News

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Unto the Breach

When I visited the Snapple website this week, I was served one of the drink brand’s famous fun facts: that a jiffy is an “actual time measurement equaling 1/100th of a second.” Fun indeed! And arguably even a little bit true!
In 2013 in The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance courageously exposed that many of Snapple’s bottle-cap facts were false.

‘Commuting Is Bad’—Particularly for Women

For all of the professional gains women have made over the past several decades, one stubborn measure of inequality—the gender wage gap—has been especially difficult to stamp out. And it’s a disparity that can be traced in large part to parenthood. In nearly every country on Earth, the arrival of children tends to coincide with a lasting drop in employment and earnings for moms but not dads.

Trump’s Inferno of Hate Is Intensifying

The actor and director Rob Reiner and his wife, the producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed to death in their home on Sunday. Yesterday, their son Nick, who has spoken about his bouts of drug addiction and homelessness, was arrested on suspicion of murder. With that news, a terrible event became doubly tragic.
Reiner was beloved by almost everyone who knew him. On social media, friends described him as generous, kind, funny, and a caring soul.

From “Alligator Alcatraz” to Gaza: U.S. Companies Line Up for Lucrative Gaza Contracts Under Trump

At least a dozen people have died in Gaza as winter storms batter displaced Palestinians forced to shelter in makeshift tents among the rubble of collapsing buildings severely damaged by Israeli bombing. That rubble is being eyed by U.S.-based contractors, who are already vying for lucrative contracts to rebuild Gaza under the Trump-backed ceasefire deal.

“We’re Angry”: Brown Univ. Student & Parkland Survivor Zoe Weissman Demands Action on Gun Violence

The two victims in Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University have been identified: freshman Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and sophomore Ella Cook. We speak to another sophomore, Zoe Weissman, who came to Brown from Parkland, Florida, where she was a student at the middle school adjacent to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the mass shooting that occurred there in 2018.

“A Force of Terror”: Rep. Delia Ramirez on ICE Abuses & Her Push to Impeach DHS Chief Kristi Noem

Democratic lawmakers repeatedly called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign as they confronted her on Trump’s immigration crackdown during a heated House Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday. We speak with Congressmember Delia Ramirez, who reiterated her call during the hearing for Noem to resign and announced that she would begin taking steps for her impeachment.

Horrible and Devastating—And Worse, Not Shocking

Lynda Ben-Menashe, the president of the National Council of Jewish Women Australia, expressed an apt sentiment after yesterday’s terror attack at Bondi Beach: She said that she was “horrified and devastated” but, she added, “not shocked.”
Indeed, how could anyone be shocked? The act of terrorism, in which a father-and-son duo targeted Jews celebrating Hanukkah and killed at least 15, was the deadliest in Australia’s history. But events have been working up to it since October 7, 2023.

Trump Widens the Breach

When Rob Reiner died violently alongside his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, yesterday, a familiar thing happened in American public life: a window opened.
It opened not because Reiner, a vocal liberal, was universally beloved or politically neutral, but because his work occupied shared cultural space.

Trump Blames Rob Reiner for His Own Murder

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.
The president is the only person in the United States with the megaphone to speak to the nation and guide them through moments of tragedy.

My Murdered Friend Eli

On the first night of Hanukkah, I learned that Eli Schlanger, a rabbi I had known for decades, was gunned down at a Hanukkah celebration he had organized in Sydney, attended by roughly 1,000 people. When Eli and I were 16, we volunteered together at a summer camp for indigent Ukrainian boys in Odesa. The early mornings we spent watching the sun rise over the beach, as he spoke with quiet certainty about his dream of becoming a rabbi and building a Jewish community, are etched in my memory.

Museum Education Can’t Stop Anti-Semitism

Updated at 6:30 p.m. ET on December 15, 2025
On October 9, 2023—two days after the Hamas attacks on Israeli villages adjacent to Gaza—protesters gathered in front of the Sydney Opera House to chant angrily about the Jews. The chant sounded to many like Gas the Jews.