Today's Liberal News

This ABC Showdown Is Different

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.
In September, FCC Chair Brendan Carr dangled a simple threat: Either ABC would “take action” against Jimmy Kimmel, or there would be consequences.

Voters Can Be Disenfranchised Now

For the conservative editor and columnist James Jackson Kilpatrick, the Supreme Court decision outlawing school segregation was an atrocity. Brown v. Board of Education, he wrote in the 1950s, was a “revolutionary act by a judicial junta which simply seized power.” He warned in 1963 that the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act would destroy “the whole basis of individual liberty.

The Fight-Club Rule on Gerrymandering

Florida Republicans have approved a new congressional map that could hand them as many as four House seats that Democrats currently hold. Their goal is straightforward and universally understood: They want to bolster the GOP’s majority in Congress and retake the lead in a yearlong, nationwide partisan gerrymandering showdown with Democrats.
Good luck, however, getting top Republicans in the Sunshine State to openly admit that.

Donald Trump’s Disturbing Welcome for King Charles

President Trump welcomed the British monarch King Charles III to the White House yesterday and gave a speech that, on its surface, expressed warmth between the two countries. But its true purpose was darker. Trump’s speech stamped his imprimatur on an ascendant view of American history and politics—one that is controversial even on the American right, and that walks up to the edge of white nationalism.

Photos: A Century of Sidecar Racing

Keystone-France / Gamma-Rapho / Getty
Sidecar racers lean into a turn during a race in the United Kingdom on October 6, 1965.Topical Press Agency / Hulton Archive / Getty
Original caption from June 1923: “F W Dixon, winner of the Tourist Trophy sidecar race on the Isle of Man, on his Douglas motorcycle.”Julia Hoyle / PA Images / Reuters
Bryan Peddar and Rod Steadman go on to win the MotoSix Open Sidecars Six Nations Championship at Donington Park, Castle Donington, England, on March 29, 2009.

“We Are Bombarding America’s Forests with Roundup”: Despite Cancer Fear, Trump Admin Pushes Herbicide

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine whether thousands of cancer patients can keep suing the manufacturers of the popular weed killer glyphosate, known as Roundup. Critics of Roundup have long alleged a link between the herbicide and cancer. It was developed by Monsanto, which was bought by Bayer in 2018.
Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting recently released a major investigation by Nate Halverson that looks at how the U.S.

Death by Firing Squad: Sister Helen Prejean on Trump’s Moves to Ramp Up Executions

The Justice Department is bringing back the use of firing squads and lethal injection using pentobarbital as it seeks to expedite and expand federal death penalty convictions and executions. No federal executions have been carried out since 2020, when the first Trump administration broke with over a decade of precedent and executed 13 people on death row. The second Trump administration is now pursuing the death penalty in dozens more cases across the country.

Sam Altman and Elon Musk Sure Dislike Each Other

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are two of the most influential people in Silicon Valley, if not the world. Between the two of them, Musk and Altman run technology companies worth many trillions of dollars that promise to reshape civilization. But this morning, both sat under fluorescent lights in a courthouse in downtown Oakland, suffering through all manner of technical glitches as their respective attorneys kicked off the long-awaited trial in Musk v. Altman.

The Evolution of Trump’s Corruption

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.
Seven years ago, during a marginally more innocent time, the Trump administration announced plans to hold the 2020 G7 summit at Donald Trump’s resort in Doral, Florida.

The Ballroom Truthers Have a Theory

Within hours of the gunfire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night—and initial, erroneous reports that the shooter had been killed—the usual swirl of misinformation and rumor was swirling in a particular direction. The event was staged, people said.
More than 300,000 posts containing the word staged were shared on X before midday on Sunday, according to an analysis cited by The New York Times.

A Ballroom Would Have Solved This

I join my voice to those of Donald J. Trump, Lindsey Graham, John Fetterman, and all the others calling for a secure White House ballroom now. Never mind that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, held in the Washington Hilton, is not hosted by the White House, so if a White House ballroom did exist, it would have altered nothing about Saturday night’s events.