Today's Liberal News

Nicki Minaj Faces Hip-Hop’s Middle-Age Conundrum

When the hip-hop legend André 3000 confused the world by releasing an album of experimental flute music earlier this year, he offered a simple explanation for why he’s stopped rapping: “I’m 48 years old,” he told GQ. He gave examples of personal concerns that he found lyrically unusable: “I got to go get a colonoscopy’ … ‘My eyesight is going bad.

Where Teens Used to Hang Out

Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Last week I asked readers how much time they spent with peers in adolescence. This is the first batch of responses.

I Spent $85 to Eat Breakfast With Santa

For all of my life, I thought eating breakfast with Santa was totally normal. Every year, he would come to my church in western New York and sit in the corner of the reception hall for a few hours. (Sometimes, he was played by my dad or my cousin Frank.) The kids would eat pancakes and drink hot chocolate in his presence and work up their courage. Whenever they felt ready, they could meet the big guy and discuss whatever they needed to. And then they would get a candy cane.

The Fossil-Fuel Industry Has a Rosy Idea of Its Future

Like the draft agreement that came out yesterday at COP28, in Dubai—which softened language about phasing out fossil fuels to “reducing” them and “efforts towards” substituting “unabated” fossil fuels—Canada is awkwardly trying to live with two contradictory ideas about climate change. The world has to stop using fossil fuels, and yet, for a petrostate, letting go isn’t easy.

Texas Woman Denied Abortion for Nonviable Fetus, Flees State, “One of Thousands” in Similar Position

A Texas woman has had to flee to another state to have an emergency abortion after the state Supreme Court ruled against her. Kate Cox fled Monday after she had petitioned a judge to get an exemption from the state’s near-total abortion ban when her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition and doctors warned her carrying to term could endanger her fertility. “Unfortunately, it’s one of hundreds, if not thousands, of comparable stories,” says Dr.

Climate Activists Outraged as COP28 Draft Text Drops Call for Fossil Fuel Phaseout

At the COP28 U.N. climate summit, a draft agreement released Monday omits a call to phase out fossil fuels, proposing “reductions” instead. The United States, Canada and other rich countries have loudly championed a phaseout but are simultaneously approving new oil and gas projects eating up the planet’s remaining carbon budget, says Meena Raman, head of programs at Third World Network and president of Friends of the Earth Malaysia.

Diplomacy, Not War: Daughter of Released Hostage Urges Israel to Reach Deal to Free More Captives

As relatives of hostages held in Gaza urge Israeli lawmakers to use diplomacy, not war, to free their loved ones, we speak to an Israeli peace activist whose 84-year-old mother was released by Hamas in late November as part of an Israel-Hamas hostage swap during the weeklong pause in fighting. “We are demanding to release all the hostages,” says Neta Heiman Mina, a member of Women Wage Peace.

The President Is Not Superman

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.America is facing an existential authoritarian threat from Donald Trump and the Republican Party in 2024, in part because voters have for too long thought of the presidency as an omnipotent throne.

George Santos promises ‘receipts’ of his fellow Republicans’ corruption

On Sunday, pathological backstory-fabricator George Santos granted an interview to a local CBS affiliate in New York. Appearing on “The Point with Marcia Kramer,” the ousted Congress member declared that he had learned from his mistakes and that he was going to atone by exposing all of the corruption he saw in Washington—and named fellow Republicans as some of the biggest offenders.

Fellow Republican Rep.

Trumpmentum in Iowa?

The Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted by Selzer & Co. is just one poll, but it’s also the most trusted survey of the Hawkeye State, and the groups just dropped their final pre-Iowa caucus poll of the cycle.

Roughly a month out from the first-in-the-nation caucus on Jan. 15, the latest Selzer poll suggests Donald Trump, whose dominance was never in question, continues to consolidate the vote ahead of next month’s contest.

DeJoy’s US Postal Service leadership is deadly

On June 20, 2023, Eugene “Gino” Gates collapsed on the lawn of a house in an affluent Dallas, Texas, neighborhood and died. The 66-year-old military veteran was a mail carrier who died of heatstroke while on his route. A homeowner attempted CPR but failed to revive him. Gates’ body temperature at death was 104.6 degrees, and the temperature in Dallas that day was a humid 98 degrees.

ICYMI: Trump chickened out and Musk got owned

Donald Trump chickened out

Buk buk buk buk ba-gawk! Donald Trump spent much of last week furiously promising to show up to court on Monday to tell his side of the story, but when it came down to it, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, Trump released an all-caps screed that Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner cleverly deciphered for us all.  

Elon Musk gets owned by the X community

It was a drama-filled weekend over on the site formerly known as Twitter.

Please Stop Paying George Santos for Clout

This holiday season, why not give that special someone something truly timeless: a recording of a disgraced congressman performing for your ironic viewing pleasure. Thanks to the magic of Cameo, a video platform that allows users to pay celebrities for custom messages, and the indefatigable American spirit of grift, you can commission a 30-second video of the recently expelled Representative George Santos telling you to “let the haters hate.” It costs $500.

Democrat who once enabled Chris Christie launches 2025 bid to lead New Jersey

Former New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney on Monday launched his long-anticipated campaign to replace his fellow Democrat, termed-out Gov. Phil Murphy, in 2025.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who entered the primary back in April, responded to the news by telling the Associated Press that Sweeney is a “conservative” who was “very, very close” to Chris Christie when the Republican was governor.

Harvard’s President Should Resign

Maresuke Nogi was always his own toughest critic. Emperor Meiji trusted him and appointed him to high military posts in Japan: general in the imperial army, governor-general of Taiwan. But we all make mistakes, and Nogi’s lapses gnawed at him. Twice he requested the emperor’s leave to commit ritual suicide. Each time, the emperor refused.

​​A Radical Idea to Break the Logic of Oil Drilling

In the climate-change era, everyone who has oil wants to be the last one to sell it. Oil-producing countries still plan to increase production in the near term, and very few economic incentives exist to press them in any other direction. As long as someone else still has oil, they’ll sell it to your customer in your stead. Oil-industry insiders have said this point-blank throughout this year’s United Nations climate talks in Dubai, which are scheduled to end tomorrow.

Science Is Becoming Less Human

This summer, a pill intended to treat a chronic, incurable lung disease entered mid-phase human trials. Previous studies have demonstrated that the drug is safe to swallow, although whether it will improve symptoms of the painful fibrosis that it targets remains unknown; this is what the current trial will determine, perhaps by next year.