Today's Liberal News

The January 6 Attack Is Not Over

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.On the second anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, Joe Biden decorated Americans for courage during the unrest, while on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives remained in limbo as many of the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election bickered over electing a speaker.

“We Need Ceasefires Everywhere”: Bishop William Barber’s Message of Peace for Ukraine & the World

Russian President Vladimir Putin has unilaterally declared a 36-hour ceasefire in Ukraine to mark Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Putin’s overture, however, saying that Russia wants to use Christmas as a pretext to stop Ukrainian advances in the Russian-occupied Donbas region. Putin’s declaration comes after about 1,000 U.S.

Two Years After Jan. 6, Capitol Attack Casts Long Shadow Over GOP That Allows Extremism to Fester

Friday marks two years since the January 6 Capitol insurrection, when President Donald Trump incited thousands of supporters to violently storm Congress, attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The attack on the Capitol briefly shut down Congress as lawmakers fled for their safety from the mob, which included members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and other violent extremist groups.

Chaos in the House: Is This Just the Beginning of a Far-Right Attempt to Make Congress Dysfunctional?

The U.S House of Representatives still has no speaker after Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy failed to get the full backing of his party over the course of two days and six rounds of voting. A contingent of about 20 far-right lawmakers opposes McCarthy’s elevation to the top job, but no other candidate has emerged so far who can garner the 218 votes necessary to claim the speaker’s gavel.

Diana Buttu & Gideon Levy: Israel’s New Far-Right Gov’t Entrenches Apartheid System with U.S. Support

Far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Tuesday visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem is being roundly condemned across the Middle East. Ben-Gvir is a key part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right government, which includes ultranationalist and ultraorthodox parties that are calling openly for the annexation of the West Bank.

McCarthy’s 14th defeat brings chaos to new levels as House Republicans raise the bar on ‘disarray’

In the fourteenth round of his failure to bribe his way into the speaker’s chair, Kevin McCarthy missed by one vote. Then McCarthy went up to Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert and tried to get them to change their votes. Whatever Gaetz said in reply, it snapped McCarthy around as he was walking down the aisle and Rep, Mike Rogers had to be restrained—as in grabbed by the head—to keep him from plunging into the seats to get at Gaetz.

Severance for laid-off workers is Musk’s latest mess at Twitter

When Elon Musk laid off nearly half of Twitter employees, he claimed they’d been offered three months of severance. Sixty days later, workers were left wondering what happened to that claim, Bloomberg reported Thursday, and that has led to more legal action against Twitter. Severance agreements might be forthcoming for workers willing to sign away their right to take legal action, Fortune reported, but information definitely had not come in a timely manner.

Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest and his future are labor issues, this week in the war on workers

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is now breathing on his own and talking as he recovers from his on-field cardiac arrest in Monday night’s NFL game, but the issues his near-death and ongoing recovery raise are very much not over. For one thing, there was the long delay before the game was officially postponed (it was later cancelled), when the call to postpone a game following an on-field near-death should be a pretty much immediate one.

What Snow Days Mean to Adults

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.Shortly after our writer Katherine J. Wu, “a born-and-bred Californian,” moved to Boston, she was met with an epic snowstorm—one so bad that the city ran out of places to dump the snow piles. As you can imagine, she wasn’t thrilled.

M3GAN’s Killer-Robot Doll Is Just What 2023 Needs

Come January, Hollywood always undergoes a strange shift in its major releases, from awards-centric fare and festive hits to the doldrums of the post-holiday season. Studios usually regard this period as a dumping ground for low-quality genre films that seem designed to be quickly forgotten. But 2023 is different, because this year, viewers have a special new friend to help them acclimatize: a pint-size robot girl named M3GAN.

I Saw Horrific Things When I Played in the NFL

When the Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field on Monday night, I was watching a cartoon with my 3-year-old son. When that ended, my son began playing with magnets on the floor, and I switched over to the game. Instead of football, I witnessed a frantic scene.

Chaos in the House: Is This Just the Beginning of a Far-Right Attempt to Make Congress Dysfunctional?

The U.S House of Representatives still has no speaker after Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy failed to get the full backing of his party over the course of two days and six rounds of voting. A contingent of about 20 far-right lawmakers opposes McCarthy’s elevation to the top job, but no other candidate has emerged so far who can garner the 218 votes necessary to claim the speaker’s gavel.

Diana Buttu & Gideon Levy: Israel’s New Far-Right Gov’t Entrenches Apartheid System with U.S. Support

Far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Tuesday visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem is being roundly condemned across the Middle East. Ben-Gvir is a key part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right government, which includes ultranationalist and ultraorthodox parties that are calling openly for the annexation of the West Bank.

Speaker in Name Only

Having at long last put down a rebellion from within his party, Kevin McCarthy is now House speaker. He finally has the gavel he’s long coveted, but the job he secured after 14 consecutive drubbings is not the one he envisioned.Last night, he suffered one more indignity to get it, perhaps the most stunning in a week’s worth of humiliations.

Speaker in Name Only

Having at long last put down a rebellion from within his party, Kevin McCarthy is now House speaker. He finally has the gavel he’s long coveted, but the job he secured after 14 consecutive drubbings is not the one he envisioned.Last night, he suffered one more indignity to get it, perhaps the most stunning in a week’s worth of humiliations.

Kevin McCarthy finally finds enough concessions to drag himself across the finish line

It took 15 votes and a near a near fistfight, but after a string of humiliating losses, Kevin McCarthy managed a humiliating victory. He has the résumé entry he’s been working toward for years: speaker of the House. Luckily for him, he doesn’t seem to care about anything but the title—because, after all of the concessions he made to get the title, he sure won’t be wielding much of the power generally presumed to go with it.

Live coverage: A bruised and weakened McCarthy finally emerges with the gavel

This really isn’t how a government should operate. Not this government, anyway. The clusterfuck, however, is continuing. Here we go again, into ballot 15 in the quest to elect a Speaker of the House.

UPDATE: Saturday, Jan 7, 2023 · 5:39:19 AM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

There won’t be a rules vote tonight after all. It will be Monday, giving Democrats plenty of time to remind all the non-maniac Republicans how McCarthy gave away all their shit.