Today's Liberal News

Oath Keeper Sedition Trial Day Eight: Some bells can’t be unrung

For the Oath Keepers now on trial for charges of seditious conspiracy, some of the largest hurdles defendants Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson, and Jessica Watkins must clear are those the Justice Department has erected through a staggering number of evidentiary text messages, emails, social media posts, group chats, handwritten notes, speeches, or podcast appearances that flowed throughout the extremist network for weeks ahead of, on, and after Jan.

Donald Trump Tried to Destroy the Constitution

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.The final hearing of the House January 6 Committee made clear that a duly elected and sworn president of the United States tried to overthrow the constitutional order. When are we going to act on that knowledge?But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

The Russian Space Program Is Falling Back to Earth

The new crew arrived at the International Space Station last week, all smiles and floating hair. There was, as usual, a little welcome ceremony, with heartfelt remarks from the newcomers streamed live for the people they left behind on Earth. A few of the astronauts floated above the others and turned upside down, hanging like bats, so that their beaming faces would fit into the frame.

Decision to Leave Is This Century’s First Great Erotic Thriller

About halfway into Park Chan-wook’s new film, Decision to Leave, a woman reaches into a man’s pocket to find a stick of lip balm. The two of them are alone, visiting a temple amid a downpour. She silently removes the cap, rolls the wheel to expose the tube, and applies it onto his chapped lips. He’s shocked at first, almost reluctant, but she smears away with quick, confident strokes. Then she smiles, as if to say, There. That’s better.

Don’t Patronize Fetterman

Earlier this week, John Fetterman sat down with NBC News for one of the defining television segments of the year. “Unlike any political interview I’ve ever done,” Dasha Burns, the NBC reporter who met with him, tweeted. Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, suffered a stroke in May. During this, his first on-camera interview since then, he relied on closed-captioning to process Burns’s questions.

The Liz Truss Travesty Becomes Britain’s Humiliation

For the first time in my adult life, there is a genuine sense of decay in Britain—a realization that something has been lost that will be difficult to recover, something more profound than pounds and pence, political personalities, or even prime ministers. Over the past three weeks, the U.K.

Jan. 6 Panel Votes to Subpoena Trump as New Video Shows Pelosi Responding to Insurrection

During the House select committee hearing Thursday, Representative Jamie Raskin revealed never-before-seen footage from January 6 of top lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, scrambling to stop the violence and making pleas for law enforcement and military support. Some Republicans had previously accused Pelosi of failing to call the National Guard to protect the Capitol, but the footage aired on Thursday sheds new light on her actions.

“I Don’t Want People to Know That We Lost”: Trump Knew Biden Won, But Kept Pushing Election Lies

During Thursday’s hearing, the January 6 House committee aired video evidence showing how Donald Trump repeatedly made false claims about voter fraud that directly contradicted facts presented to him by top advisers. “These actions, taken directly by the president himself, made it clear what his intentions were: to prevent the orderly transfer of power,” said Congressmember Elaine Luria.

“All Hell Is Going to Break Loose”: How Trump’s Inner Circle Prepared for Violence Ahead of Jan. 6

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol held what may have been its final public hearing on Thursday. The meeting ended with the committee unanimously voting to subpoena former President Donald Trump, likely setting the stage for a court battle. During the hearing, Congressmember Zoe Lofgren of California detailed how Trump had developed a plan to declare victory in the 2020 election regardless of the actual outcome.

Massive Leak of Military Docs Reveals Mexico Armed Cartels, Surveilled Journalists & Zapatistas

A stunning leak of more than 4 million documents from inside the Mexican military has revealed collusion between high-level military officials and the country’s cartels. The leak, published by the hacking group Guacamaya, is one of the largest in Mexico’s history and shows how military officials sold weapons, technical equipment and key information about rival gangs to cartels.

Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is “Heist” by Private Firms to Defraud the Public

Many of the nation’s largest health insurance companies have made billions of dollars in profits by overbilling the U.S. government’s Medicare Advantage program. A New York Times investigation has revealed that under the Advantage program, health insurance companies are incentivized to make patients appear more ill than they actually are. Some estimates find it has cost the government between $12 billion and $25 billion in 2020 alone.

Jan. 6 committee votes to subpoena the ‘center’ of the insurrection: Donald Trump

On Thursday, the Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol voted unanimously to subpoena former President Donald Trump more than a year after he incited an insurrection that left multiple people dead and more than 100 police officers severely injured.

The vote came after the committee held what was billed as its final expected hearing before it issues a report later this year.