Today's Liberal News

The Most Beautiful Moment of the Artemis II Mission

The most moving image to emerge from the Artemis II mission has not been a snapshot of the moon or the Earth. The camera was instead pointed at the astronauts themselves, squeezed inside their tiny capsule. Christina Koch sat in the foreground, strapped into her chair. Only parts of the other three were visible. Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian, was talking to ground control but also to an international livestream audience.

Did Trump Just Threaten to Use Nuclear Weapons in Iran?

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The president of the United States is losing his head, and that means the rest of us must keep ours. At 8:06 a.m. eastern daylight time, Donald Trump posted this on his Truth Social site:
A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.

“A Moral Obscenity”: White House Demands $1.5 Trillion Pentagon Budget, Largest Increase Since WWII

The White House is seeking a record-shattering Pentagon budget of $1.5 trillion for the next fiscal year, the largest year-over-year increase in a presidential military spending request since World War II. The United States already has the world’s largest military budget at roughly $1 trillion, more than the combined budgets of the next nine highest-spending countries.

Report from Tehran: “Hormuz Is Not a Tool to End the War But How Iran Wins the Aftermath”

We speak with two Iranian scholars ahead of an 8 p.m. ET deadline set by President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face destruction of all its power plants, bridges and other civilian infrastructure. Twelve hours ahead of the deadline, the president posted on social media, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.

Meet Leqaa Kordia: Palestinian Protester Freed After a Year in “ICE Dungeon”

We speak with Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia, who was freed on March 16 after spending more than a year in an ICE jail in Texas. She was arrested in 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s campaign to target student activists and others who advocated for Palestinian rights.
Kordia was born in the occupied West Bank and lives in New Jersey. She was arrested in 2024 during the Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia University.

What Happens When Trump Feels Cornered

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In an earlier, somewhat more innocent era of Donald Trump’s social-media posting, one could still chuckle darkly at his 2017 declaration that his approach “is not Presidential – it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL.

The ChatGPT Symptom Spiral

After George Mallon had his blood drawn at a routine physical, he learned that something may be gravely wrong. The preliminary results showed he might have blood cancer. Further tests would be needed. Left in suspense, he did what so many people do these days: He opened ChatGPT.
For nearly two weeks, Mallon, a 46-year-old in Liverpool, England, spent hours each day talking with the chatbot about the potential diagnosis.

This Is Not How Presidents Typically Communicate

When Theodore Roosevelt marveled that he possessed “such a bully pulpit,” he used bully to mean wonderful or superb. Donald Trump’s schoolyard taunts and wartime bombast have turned the presidential podium into a platform for threatening harm or intimidating enemies, especially ones deemed inferior—a very different definition of bully.
Once again, the 47th president has added a new entry on his long list of unprecedented acts.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: What Demonym Is That?

Were there a demonym for Atlantic readers, would it be Atlanticists? Atlanteans? Atlantickers? The one for Atlantic Trivia players is easier: That’s just geniuses.
And by the way, did you know that people from Liverpool are called Liverpudlians, people from Sydney are Sydneysiders, and Glasgow residents are Glaswegians? 
My favorite demonym, however, is the bit of phonetic magic that turns the disparate St.

Savannah Guthrie and the Hard Truth About True Crime

“Well, here we go. Ready or not, let’s do the news.”
With that, Savannah Guthrie returned to her role as a co-host of Today after more than two months away from the morning show—a leave that she began just after her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was reported missing from her home in Arizona.

Israel’s War on Lebanon Is a Consequence of “No Accountability” for Gaza: Human Rights Watch

We go to Lebanon, where an Israeli invasion is in full swing along the southern border. Israel has announced the expansion of its so-called buffer zone and issued mass evacuation orders as its military destroys homes and infrastructure throughout the region. A humanitarian crisis is brewing as hospitals have been blocked from receiving medical supplies and as healthcare workers, as well as other civilians, have been killed in targeted Israeli strikes.

“He Is Increasingly Desperate”: Trita Parsi on Trump’s Expletive-Laced Threats Against Iran

We get the latest analysis on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran from Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Parsi discusses the increasing “desperation” of U.S. strategy, Iran’s long-term economic control over the Strait of Hormuz and growing “hawkishness,” and the dangerous possibility of nuclear warfare.