Obamacare fraud report has Republicans crying foul
The Government Accountability Office report is solidifying GOP opposition to extending expiring subsidies that help people pay for health insurance.
Today's Liberal News
Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Ready for Your Close-Up?
Updated with new questions at 4 p.m. ET on December 3, 2025.
I have much extolled here the value of new knowledge. Let us now hear a counterargument: Some months after Yale gave Mark Twain an honorary degree in 1888, the writer’s schedule cleared up enough for him to pull together a speech advising that the good people of the college learn less.
“I found the astronomer of the university gadding around after comets and other such odds and ends,” he wrote.
Why Taylor Swift’s Accent Has Changed
The lore has by now been recounted many a time: In 2004, Scott and Andrea Swift moved from central Pennsylvania to Nashville so that their 14-year-old daughter, Taylor, could pursue a career in country music. They bought a house on a lake, and Taylor started heading to Music Row after school to work with songwriters.
As Swift’s star rose, something else shifted: her voice.
“WTO/99” Filmmaker on Anti-Corporate Globalization Movement: “These Issues Haven’t Gone Away”
WTO/99 is a new “immersive archival documentary” about the 1999 protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization that uses 1,000+ hours of footage from the Independent Media Center and other archives. The historic WTO protests against corporate power and economic globalization were met with a militarized police crackdown and National Guard troops. We feature clips from the film and discuss takeaways that have relevance today.
Ralph Nader on Trump’s “Entrenching Dictatorship,” Reclaiming Congress, and the Fight Against Big Money
As a “Fight Club” of eight senators led by Bernie Sanders challenges Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s handling of President Trump, we speak with Ralph Nader, who has been taking on the Democratic Party for decades. Sixty years ago this week, he published his landmark book, Unsafe at Any Speed, exposing the safety flaws of GM’s Chevrolet Corvair and leading to major reforms in auto safety laws.
U.S.-Backed Ceasefire Is Cover for Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza & West Bank: Sari Bashi
Israel has announced it will reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in the next few days as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. However, the border will only open in one direction: for Palestinians to exit. Israeli American human rights lawyer Sari Bashi says the move validates fears that Israel’s goal is to “continue the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
Why Republicans aren’t eager to cut an Obamacare deal
“No one wants a primary challenge where the accusation is: ‘You supported Obamacare.
What Happens When You Organize Church Around AIDS – and AIDS Changes?
The AIDS cocktail opens new possibilities. And MCC San Francisco tries to use the experience of AIDS to make bigger social change.
Money Talks: Hard Times for Fast Food
Heather Haddon joins Emily Peck to discuss the current challenges and trends she’s reported on in the fast food industry.
It’s Popular, Great for the Economy, and Surprisingly Good for You. Why Is Congress Trying to Ban It?
Lawmakers want to close a so-called hemp loophole. They might blow up a massive industry in the process.
This Major American Airport Is Getting a $1.7 Billion Facelift. Thank God.
After US Airways left Pittsburgh high and dry, yinzers finally built an airport on their own terms—and it’s incredible.
There Are Idiots, Look Around
Larry Summers’ appalling emails to Jeffrey Epstein aren’t the only reason not to like the guy.
RFK Jr. is overhauling the program that helps preserve Americans’ access to vaccines
A Kennedy adviser said he wants to preserve the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The health secretary’s anti-vaccine allies prefer it collapse.
Americans are buckling under medical bills. It could get worse.
Charities that help people pay for care say demand is way up. That’s before scheduled Medicaid and Obamacare cuts take effect.
The Church’s Pastor Gets Diagnosed with AIDS. And the Church Wonders How Much They Might Lose.
The church’s minister gets sick and everyone knows it.
A Church Romance Between a Hula Dancer and a Lumbersexual Blossoms in a Dangerous Time.
The church’s “it couple” faces AIDS, caregiving, and loss as part of a pair, part of families, and part of a community.
A Sermon With “Old Fashioned Homosexual Values.”
A celebrity contracts HIV, the world finally pays attention to AIDS, and Jim Mitulski preaches to a community tired of people dying from it.
How Should Queer Christians Respond to Anti-Gay Violence, its Victims, and the People Who Perpetrate It?
When a lesbian minister is physically assaulted, the church is galvanized. When it happens again, the city is galvanized.
To Preach About Healing When You Know You’re Going to Die
A gay minister seeks healing with his family and his queer kin, even as he knows he’ll soon die from AIDS.
White House bullish on economic growth as Thanksgiving spending rises
Economic adviser Kevin Hassett dismissed economic bedwetters, saying strong spending bodes well for the economy.
Trump, stung by Republican losses, stands his ground on affordability
Democrats running on cost-of-living anxieties outperformed Republicans in Tuesday’s elections by greater-than-expected margins. The president chalked it up to partisan lies.
Voters on Tuesday rewarded Democrats who addressed economic costs. Hours later, Trump said he delivered an ‘economic miracle.’
A recent poll found a majority of Americans feel they’re spending more on groceries than they did a year ago.
Reaganomics in Jersey: Jack Ciattarelli has a supply-side dream if he’s elected governor this week
The Republican nominee has promised tax cuts and economic growth, but the numbers are fuzzy.
“Imperial Blowback”: Suspect in D.C. Shooting Was Part of CIA Death Squad in Afghanistan
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man who authorities say shot two National Guardsmen outside the White House, had previously worked in a CIA-backed “Zero Unit” in Afghanistan, often called “death squads” by human rights groups.
The Last Big Case Against Trump Has Been Dropped
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.
Even today, nearly five years later, listening to Donald Trump’s call is shocking.
“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes,” he told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and a few aides on January 2, 2021.
Tom Stoppard Achieved the Impossible
“Writing a play,” Tom Stoppard told an interviewer in 1977, “is like smashing that ashtray, filming it in slow motion, and then running the film in reverse, so that the fragments of rubble appear to fly together. You start—or at least I start—with the rubble.”
In life, of course, this kind of reversal is impossible. As the physicist Valentine Coverley puts it in Stoppard’s masterpiece Arcadia, “You can’t run the film backwards. Heat was the first thing which didn’t work that way.
Pharma lobbyists to EU: Cut deals with Trump
Advocates for European drugmakers say other countries must follow the UK to the bargaining table to stave off tariffs and remain competitive.
Netanyahu Just Admitted He’s Unfit to Lead Israel
For the past five years, Benjamin Netanyahu has been on trial for corruption, accused of accepting lavish gifts in exchange for political favors and of using his influence to pressure media moguls into giving him more favorable coverage. On Sunday, the Israeli leader formally asked the country’s president, Isaac Herzog, to let him off the hook, requesting a pardon before the court had even reached a verdict on the allegations. The brazen gambit immediately provoked sharp responses within Israel.
Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Prescription Strength
Updated with new questions at 5:15 p.m. ET on December 2, 2025.
I have much extolled here the value of new knowledge. Let us now hear a counterargument: Some months after Yale gave Mark Twain an honorary degree in 1888, the writer’s schedule cleared up enough for him to pull together a speech advising that the good people of the college learn less.
“I found the astronomer of the university gadding around after comets and other such odds and ends,” he wrote.