Today's Liberal News

The Moment in 2012 That Foreshadowed Trump’s Rise

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.Since Donald Trump won the Republican nomination in 2016, “an industry of rationalization and justification has thrived,” David French wrote last week.

What Europe’s COVID Wave Means for the U.S.

Winter is coming. Again. For the past two years, colder temperatures have brought seasonal COVID upticks, which turned into massive waves when ill-timed new variants emerged. In Western Europe, the first part of that story certainly seems to be playing out again. Cases and hospitalizations started going up last month. No new variant has become dominant yet, but experts are monitoring a pair of potentially troubling viral offshoots called BQ.1 and XBB.

How to Avoid the ‘White Savior Industrial Complex’

Ten years ago, the writer Teju Cole coined the term White Savior Industrial Complex to describe what he viewed as the all-too-familiar pattern of white people of privilege seeking personal catharsis by attempting to liberate, rescue, or otherwise uplift underprivileged people of color. “The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice,” Cole wrote in a viral Twitter thread, which he then expanded on in The Atlantic.

“They Want a Democracy”: Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi on Protests, Regime’s Future

We look at the scope, scale and sustainability of the protests in Iran, which have entered their second month, after being sparked in September by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police. More than a thousand protesters have been arrested, while some children have been sent to reeducation camps. The United Nations said Tuesday at least 23 children have been killed in the demonstrations.

60 Years After Cuban Missile Crisis, Activists Demand World Leaders “Defuse Nuclear War”

As nuclear powers ratchet up tensions around the Ukraine war, the U.S., NATO and Russia are carrying out nuclear war games. Meanwhile, anti-nuclear activists are calling on lawmakers and world leaders to “Defuse Nuclear War.” Their calls come on the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “The Kremlin is making nuclear threats that are completely reckless. At the same time, there are things that the U.S.

Ukraine update: Fiona Hill declares Ukraine invasion is ‘the end of the existing world order’

Former National Security Counsel director Fiona Hill became a household name during her deposition for Donald Trump’s first impeachment. Her fearless, straightforward, no-nonsense testimony on both Trump’s actions and diplomatic issues has made Hill one of the nation’s most respected experts on international relations, especially when it comes to all things Russia.

Val Demings ripped Rubio a new one at their sole debate. It was refreshing

Rep. Val Demings of Florida ain’t playing in her bid to flip Florida’s Senate seat. The former Orlando police chief was uniquely suited to tackle head on two of this cycle’s top issues—abortion and crime—and she used them to wipe the floor with her Republican rival, Sen. Marco Rubio, at their sole debate Tuesday night.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Republican House

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.Earlier today, I posed a question to my colleague Russell Berman on Slack: What should we expect if—or is it when?—Republicans retake the House in the midterms? Here is the spirited chat that followed.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

It’s Gotten Awkward to Wear a Mask

Last week, just a couple of hours into a house-sitting stint in Massachusetts for my cousin and his wife, I received from them a flummoxed text: “Dude,” it read. “We are the only people in masks.” Upon arriving at the airport, and then boarding their flight, they’d been shocked to find themselves virtually alone in wearing masks of any kind.