Today's Liberal News

Debate: Will Finland’s Addition to NATO Make Direct Conflict with Russia More Likely?

Finland is formally joining NATO on Tuesday in a move that doubles the military alliance’s border with Russia. Finland and Russia share an 800-mile border. Finland is joining NATO a week after Turkey’s parliament voted to ratify the Nordic country’s membership. Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve Sweden as a member of NATO, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accusing Stockholm of harboring Kurdish dissidents he considers terrorists.

Juan González on Chicago Mayoral Race: Can a Progressive, Multiracial Coalition Win?

Chicago residents are voting Tuesday in a mayoral runoff election that has been dominated by issues of public safety, with the two leading candidates coming from different ends of the Democratic Party’s political spectrum. Brandon Johnson is an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union and backed by progressive forces in the city, and Paul Vallas is the former head of Chicago Public Schools who is endorsed by the police union.

History in the Making: David Cay Johnston on Why Trump’s Arraignment May Renew American Democracy

On the day of Donald Trump’s historic arraignment in New York, making him the first former president ever to be criminally charged, we speak with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, who has covered Trump for decades. Trump is said to face 34 felony counts for falsifying business records. The case centers in part on hush-money payments Trump made during the 2016 presidential campaign to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Russia Escalates Its War on Reporters

I found it hard to get to sleep on Thursday night after seeing news that a Moscow court had charged the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage. The images from outside the court shocked many of us. The Moscow press pack is a tight-knit community, and Gershkovich’s colleagues from the BBC, the Financial Times, Politico, and other publications posted “Journalism is not a crime” on their social media.

Putin Presses the Nuclear Nerve Again

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.Russian President Vladimir Putin is once again trying to manipulate nuclear weapons to compensate for the ongoing Russian military disaster in Ukraine. These new Russian moves are dangerous but not a crisis.First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Don’t take your eye off Jack Smith.

The Surprising Compatibility of Science and Faith

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he 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 quoted the late astronomer and astrophysicist Carl Sagan on humanity’s place in the cosmos, and asked readers for their thoughts on outer space.

Not Your Grandfather’s Moon Mission

If you asked Americans to name a space mission, any space mission, I suspect very few would pick Apollo 8. The 1968 mission, the first to circle the moon, gets overshadowed by Apollo 11 (“One small step for man”; you know the rest) and Apollo 13 (of Tom Hanks fame). The astronauts didn’t venture from their spaceship, nor did they touch the lunar surface. But in its own, quiet way, that mission was an existential milestone.

Return of the People Machine

Even a halfway-decent political campaign knows you better than you know yourself. A candidate’s army of number crunchers vacuums up any morsel of personal information that might affect the choice we make at the polls. In 2020, Donald Trump and the Republican Party compiled 3,000 data points on every single voter in America. In 2012, the data nerds helped Barack Obama parse the electorate to microtarget his door-knocking efforts toward the most-persuadable swing voters. And in 1960, John F.

Former Guantánamo Prisoner: Ron DeSantis Watched My Torture When He Was a Navy Lawyer at Gitmo

As Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis plans to run for president in 2024, his time at Guantánamo is coming under scrutiny. Prior to entering politics, DeSantis served in the Navy as an attorney, first at the U.S. prison at the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba and later in Iraq. Former Guantánamo prisoner Mansoor Adayfi says DeSantis personally witnessed him being force-fed and tortured, and other prisoners have backed up Adayfi’s account.

Elie Mystal on Tennessee’s Anti-Drag Ban: GOP Is Pushing Bigotry & Attacking the First Amendment

On Friday, a Federal Judge in Memphis, Tennessee, temporarily blocked a law signed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee banning drag shows in public, and legal experts say it will likely continue to be blocked all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Tennessee’s drag ban was always bad law. It was always against the First Amendment,” says Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation.

As GOP Pushes for Nationwide Abortion Ban, Judge Blocks Mandate for ACA to Cover Basic Prenatal Care

A federal Judge in Texas on Thursday blocked the Affordable Care Act mandate for health insurance companies to provide preventive care. We speak with Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, about his piece, “The GOP’s War on Obamacare Is Screwing Up Its War on Abortion,” and how the Republican Party opposes access to abortion but will not require insurance companies to cover basic prenatal care.