Today's Liberal News

Alito interrupts Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to crack ‘joke’ about Black kids in KKK costumes

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that uses “free speech” and personal religious beliefs as justifications to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans. Justice Samuel Alito clearly didn’t take the case seriously as he was overheard making a nonsensical joke about Black children in KKK costumes as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson attempted to clarify a hypothetical.  

The case is titled 303 Creative LLC  v.

Warnock campaigns hard in final days before Georgia runoff, while Walker hardly seems to be trying

The day before the Georgia Senate runoff election, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is seen as having the advantage of Republican nominee Herschel Walker, but the race is expected to be tight. Warnock responded by sprinting through a final weekend of hard campaigning, making six campaign stops and delivering a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the historic Black church where he is senior pastor.

House Republicans remain in total disarray

The vote counting is finally all done, and House Republicans have a tiny majority of 222 seats, with Democrats holding 213. This means GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes in his bid to be Speaker of the House, and there are already five who insist they will oppose him. The chance that he could scrap together a majority with help from Democrats is vanishingly small.

Republican talk show host who says election was ‘stolen’ investigated for election fraud

A conservative North Georgia talk show host who, like most conservatives, rails against election fraud, has allegedly voted illegally … nine times. He’s also a candidate for the state House. How did he allegedly break the law and commit Republican-only election fraud?

Well, the Georgia attorney general’s office says Brian K. Pritchard voted while “serving a felony sentence in a $33,000 forgery and theft case.

How We Could Discover Alien Life

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.Fifty years ago this week, NASA launched the Apollo 17 mission. When that crew returned, President Richard Nixon said “this may be the last time in this century that men will walk on the moon”—and he was right.

Cocaine Bear: Why?

Two questions immediately occur to anyone watching the trailer for Cocaine Bear: Is this real? and Why? The first is easy enough to answer. The film, about a black bear who gobbles bricks of cocaine and then butchers a series of humans in rapid succession, is loosely based on a real-life black bear who, in 1985, gobbled at least part of a single brick of cocaine and then died.The true story had no murderous rampage.

The Psychological Test of Japan’s Finale

This is an edition of The Great Game, a newsletter about the 2022 World Cup—and how soccer explains the world. Sign up here.Japan beat two World Cup champions, Germany and Spain, on its way to the knockout stage. But the Samurai Blue will go no further, defeated on penalties by the 2018 finalists Croatia after more than 120 minutes of play, including the first shootout of this year’s tournament.

10 Readers on Opposing Anti-Semitism

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.

Donald Trump Is No Lover of the Constitution

Donald Trump’s call over the weekend for terminating the Constitution was, though appalling, also a long time coming.Trump, the once and aspirationally future Republican president, has long praised the Constitution and touted his own defense of it in heroic terms.

Abandoned? Meet a Student Suing Yale for Pressuring Those with Mental Health Needs to Withdraw

A group of current and former Yale students is suing the Ivy League university over what they say is “systemic discrimination” against students struggling with mental health issues. In a lawsuit filed last week, they say school administrators routinely pressure students to withdraw from Yale rather than accommodating their mental health needs, a practice that disproportionately hurts students of color, those from poor or rural backgrounds and international students.

Inside Israel’s Cover-up & U.S. Response to Murder of Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

More than six months since the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed while reporting in the occupied West Bank, “there is still no accountability in what happened,” says journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous. He is the correspondent on a new Al Jazeera documentary for the program “Fault Lines” that investigates Abu Akleh’s May killing.

Rights Advocates to NYC Mayor Adams: You Can’t Arrest Your Way Out of Housing & Mental Health Crisis

New York Mayor Eric Adams announced this week that police and emergency medical workers will start hospitalizing people with mental illness against their will, even if they pose no threat to others. Rights groups and community organizations have slammed the move as inhumane and are demanding better access to housing and other support for people struggling with mental illness and homelessness. “That does require funding. That does require investment.