Today's Liberal News

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here.
This week, my colleague Lily Meyer investigated “what happened to the radicals.” In her article, she was writing about a type of plot shared by several recent books, as well as the Oscar-winning film One Battle After Another.

Silicon Valley Is in a Frenzy Over Bots That Build Themselves

Late last month, a large crowd gathered in downtown San Francisco to demand that the AI industry stop developing more powerful bots. Holding signs and banners reading Stop the AI Race and Don’t Build Skynet, the protesters marched through the city and gave speeches outside the offices of Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI. The crowd demanded that these companies halt efforts to create superintelligent machines—and, in particular, AI models that can develop future AI models.

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.

Pam Bondi Fired as AG Despite Never Saying No to Trump: Law Prof. David Cole

President Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi amid reports of his growing frustration with her failure to prosecute his political enemies and her handling of the Epstein files.
Bondi, Florida’s former attorney general, was a Trump loyalist who openly heaped praise on the president and did away with the long-standing Department of Justice practice of maintaining political independence from the White House.

Immigrant Workers in Colorado Lead “Historic Strike” at JBS, Largest U.S. Meat Processor

More than 3,000 meatpacking workers in Greeley, Colorado, have been on strike since mid-March, the first major labor strike in the U.S. meatpacking industry since 1985. Workers at JBS USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian-based multinational JBS, are protesting unfair and dangerous labor conditions, including low wages, lack of personal protective gear and discrimination against its majority-immigrant workforce.

Hegseth’s War on America’s Military

The United States is in the middle of a major war, but that didn’t stop Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday from firing General Randy George, America’s most senior Army officer. George was the Army’s Chief of Staff, and he was cashiered along with another four-star general, David Hodne, and Major General William Green, Jr., the top Army chaplain, in what has been a rolling purge by Hegseth of senior officers—particularly those close to the Secretary of Army, Dan Driscoll.

An Army Shake-Up in the Middle of a War

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army’s top officer, and the White House is discussing the potential departure of the Army secretary in what together would be the biggest wartime military shake-up in decades.
Hegseth asked General Randy George, who was just over halfway through his slated tenure as Army chief of staff, to step down and retire immediately, a Pentagon official told us.

Trump’s Purge May Be Just Beginning

After Pam Bondi’s ouster today, which followed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s firing last month, Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials were anxiously eyeing their phones, wondering whether they’d be next. One top official didn’t have to wait long: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth removed the chief of staff of the Army, General Randy George.

The Next Attorney General Has an Impossible Job

Throughout his first term, Donald Trump serially fired and replaced members of his Cabinet as they displeased him. In his second, he seemed to be trying to break this pattern—keeping top aides even after their missteps and humiliations that would have sunk careers in any other administration. But now the president is back to his old ways. Last month, he fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Today, he announced the departure of Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: Missions to the Moon

Go for trivia launch. T-minus five, four, three—trivia ignition. Players, we have liftoff.
And by the way, did you know that so-called astronaut ice cream—that duplicitous treat!—was sent to space only once?
It is true that freeze-dried ice cream was developed under contract for NASA during the 1960s, but the only record of its presence on a mission is a menu from a single 1968 voyage.

Israel’s Death-by-Hanging Law Marks Further “Dehumanization of Palestinians”: B’Tselem

We speak with Sarit Michaeli from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem following the Knesset’s passage of a new law mandating death by hanging for Palestinians who are convicted of murdering Israelis. Jewish Israelis will not face the same punishment for similar crimes. The law, which further cements Israel’s apartheid system, has drawn condemnation from rights groups and other countries.