Today's Liberal News

A gutless Ken Paxton tries to preen after bravely fleeing from a court’s process server

At this point, we have probably all heard of “indicted for seven damn years now” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s brave efforts to dodge a process server trying to serve him with a subpoena. But hearing about it is not enough. It’s important to also make fun of him, because Jeebus, this dude is going all-in trying to portray himself as having barely dodged some of the rampant violence going on down in Texas these days.

Newt Gingrich tries to attack John Fetterman’s tattoos and it goes hilariously badly for Newt

John Fetterman has been running a very solid campaign based on policy promises and remedies. The very simple idea is that Fetterman wants Pennsylvanians to consider voting for him to become their next senator. He is hoping that the ideas he puts forth and policy promises he makes will appeal to voters. He has the added bonus of having a great social media team. He has the double added bonus of running against television diet pill-pusher Mehmet Oz.

Staff who talk about abortion at University of Idaho can be terminated, face up to 5 years in jail

In support of the state’s near-total ban on abortion, which took effect in August, the University of Idaho sent a memo to staff last week warning employees not to provide birth control pills or reproductive health services. According to the memo, shared by the Idaho Press, under Idaho’s new law, staff cannot provide emergency contraception except in the case of rape.

Young people are registering to vote in massive numbers post-Dobbs, but we’re running out of time

We’re just six weeks away from the midterm elections, and we have seen a huge influx of young people registering to vote because they’re angry about the Supreme Court’s destruction of abortion rights in June.

As Daily Kos’ Kerry Eleveld wrote this month:

Ideally, heading into the final stretch of a midterm election, a party settles on a unifying message on the top one or two issues driving the cycle.

Russia’s Nuclear Threats Are All Putin Has Left

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.Yesterday, I discussed the shambolic attempt under way in Russia to conscript hundreds of thousands of men. Today, one of Vladimir Putin’s minions again threatened the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. What do these threats mean?But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

We’re Witnessing the Birth of a New Artistic Medium

Creative artificial intelligence is the latest and, in some ways, most surprising and exhilarating art form in the world. It also isn’t fully formed yet. That tension is causing some confusion.If you’re familiar at all with the use of creative artificial intelligence, you probably know it through one of the popular text-to-image AI applications, which use sprawling databases of existing imagery to convert a written prompt into a new picture.

Who Is Tracy Flick Now?

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our coverage of The Atlantic Festival. Learn more and watch festival sessions here. In the dark 1999 comedy Election, the overachieving student Tracy Flick—played by an up-and-coming Reese Witherspoon—dreams of political domination, starting with the race for class president at her suburban high school.

“Immoral & Sinful”: Bishop Barber Blasts Mississippi Gov. for Failing to Protect Jackson’s Water

We speak with Bishop William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign to get an update on the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, where tens of thousands of residents are still without clean tap water. “It’s an immoral and sinful violation of equal protection under the law and human rights,” says Barber, who led a rally Monday outside the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson demanding the state reverse decades of disinvestment in the majority-Black capital.

The Only Two Seasons That Matter Now

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.No season has the glorified reputation of summer. Although many people love the optimism of spring or the romance of autumn, American culture has a special fondness for warm weather, long days, time away from school or work, and a mindset that prioritizes fun over productivity.

The Pandemic Novel That’s Frozen in Time

During the spring of 2020, I found myself thinking a lot about the fact that I was living through a historic disaster. I read about past wars and crises, trying to calm myself with the knowledge that prior generations had been through worse. I can see now that I was distracting myself from my own day-to-day.

“Model America”: Family of Phillip Pannell, Killed by White NJ Cop in ’90, Still Struggles for Justice

A new series examines how protests that erupted over a police killing three decades ago offer important lessons for the Black Lives Matter movement today. We speak to the family of Phillip Pannell, a 16-year-old Black boy who was fatally shot in the back in 1990 by a white police officer later acquitted for the killing. Pannell is the subject of “Model America,” a new four-part series by MSNBC that looks at the racial divide in the U.S.

Ukraine update: As Russia mobilizes, here’s what a well-trained army looks like

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Mark Sumner was awesome this past week, covering Ukraine through the weekend, on his days off, giving me space to spend precious time with my son Ari at Fort Benning, Georgia between his graduation from infantry advanced training, and entering the Ranger school pipeline—one of the hardest schools in the entire U.S. military, the black and gold Ranger tab one of its most prestigious honors.