Today's Liberal News

Not Even a Single Republican Voted for the Climate Bill

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by the House of Representatives today, is about to become the first comprehensive climate legislation in U.S. history. Compared with Congress’s desultory approach to the issue in the past, the numbers are striking: The legislation will spend roughly $374 billion on decarbonization and climate resilience over the next 10 years, getting us two-thirds of the way to America’s Paris Agreement goals.

All Because Salman Rushdie Wrote a Book

Salman Rushdie has had a price on his head for 33 years. He is a writer who has lived with the fear of being killed for his words. Whatever other opinion one might have about Rushdie and his skills as a novelist or his public persona, this much is true: He has understood what it means to be targeted and hated—burned in effigy—forced to hide and, even in recent years, to continue to look over his shoulder. All because he wrote a book.

Trump’s Vault of Secrets

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.Everything that crosses a president’s desk is valuable intelligence to our adversaries. Why were boxes of such materials in Donald Trump’s home in Florida?But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

The One Social-Media Feature That People Still Love

Almost every social-media platform offers its users an option to privatize their account—a way for people to control who engages with their content, often to avoid the judgment, schadenfreude, bullying, and snark that are ubiquitous online. Many of these options aren’t terribly helpful, though. Facebook seems to constantly adjust its privacy settings, and it can be difficult to tell what information your friends have access to.

Not Even the President Can Declassify Nuclear Secrets

The executive branch’s system of classification is among the weirdest aspects of the American government, and sometimes it seems as if those best equipped to understand it are people with a background in obscure religious practices—say, Roman Catholic sacramental theology—rather than journalists or lawyers.

Filipino Activist Walden Bello Speaks Out After Arrest Just Weeks After Marcos Jr. Inauguration

We speak to Walden Bello, the longtime Filipino activist and former vice-presidential candidate. He was arrested Monday on “cyber libel” charges, which he says was just a tactic by the new administration to suppress his vocal criticism of them. The arrest took place just weeks after the inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the former U.S.-backed dictator. Bello says people are “worried that this is a foretaste of things to come.

Saudi Spying Inside Twitter Led to Torture & Jailing of Saudi Man Who Ran Anonymous Satirical Account

A jury in California has convicted a former worker at Twitter of spying for Saudi Arabia by providing the kingdom private information about Saudi dissidents. The spying effort led to the arrest, torture and jailing of Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who ran an anonymous satirical Twitter account. His sister, Areej al-Sadhan, and the lawyer for the family, Jim Walden, are calling on the Biden administration to push for his release.

Afghanistan: The Taliban Cracks Down on Women’s Rights as U.S. Sanctions Worsen Humanitarian Crisis

One year after the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan, we look at the new government’s crackdown on women’s rights while millions of Afghans go hungry. We speak to journalist Matthieu Aikins, who visited the capital Kabul for the first time since the U.S. evacuation one year ago. He writes the country is being “kept on humanitarian life support” in his recent article for The New York Times Magazine.

Washington Post: Mar-a-Lago search was about ‘classified documents relating to nuclear weapons’

Since the search by FBI agents at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday, Trump, the Republican Party, and its media allies—when not viciously demonizing the Department of Justice and the FBI—have insisted that it was a political fishing expedition, and there was nothing to be found beyond mementoes of Trump’s years in the White House. Darn near the makings of a future scrapbook.

Justice Department is seeking to unseal Trump warrant, Attorney General Merrick Garland announces

Attorney General Merrick Garland is making a statement at 2:30 PM ET on Thursday, following days of public silence since the FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property on Monday. That search was reportedly for classified documents Trump had taken with him when he left White House, and it has given rise to huge amounts of Republican conspiracy theories, as well as broader public pressure for the Justice Department to offer up information.

Cincinnati FBI breach suspect is killed in shootout and identified as possible Jan. 6 participant

At 9 AM Thursday morning, the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio, says that an armed man attempted to “breach the Visitor Screening Facility” at their headquarters. An alarm was set off and the suspect then fled the scene. He has reportedly engaged law enforcement personnel in a chase and there has been a lockdown of Clinton County.

As of the writing of this post, the man remains unidentified, as are his motives.