Today's Liberal News

Philadelphia Strike Ends: Race & Inequality at Center of Municipal Workers’ Fight for a Fair Wage

The largest municipal workers’ strike in decades in the city of Philadelphia has ended after 9,000 members of AFSCME District Council 33, who are primarily sanitation workers, walked off the job a week ago. Growing piles of trash on the streets of Philadelphia brought the strike into clear view for city residents. Labor historian Francis Ryan says the workers won “the hearts of a lot of Philadelphians” with a popular social media campaign.

The One Place Where Nuclear War Isn’t Abstract

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.
Japan is the one place in the world that has felt, and personally mourned, the staggering damage of nuclear warfare. The tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have turned the country into a longtime proponent of nuclear disarmament. But that national identity is starting to shift.

The End of Airport Shoe-Screening Is Populism Theater

Air travelers in America shall no more doff their chukkas, their wedges, their wingtips, their espadrilles, or their Mary Janes, according to a rule-change announced by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday. It’s been more than two decades since the Transportation Security Administration started putting people’s footwear through its scanners, after a man named Richard Reid tried and failed to detonate his high-top sneakers on a flight to Miami in December 2001.

The Atlantic Hires Idrees Kahloon as Staff Writer

As The Atlantic continues to expand its editorial team, today it announced the hire of Idrees Kahloon as a staff writer. Idrees is currently the Washington bureau chief of The Economist.
This week, The Atlantic also announced two additional staff writers: Vivian Salama, joining next month from The Wall Street Journal to cover national security and foreign policy; and Tom Bartlett, who began yesterday to cover health and science under the second Trump administration.

What the Next Phase of Trump’s Presidency Will Look Like

The One Big Beautiful Bill is law. Now what?
Not quite six months into his new term, President Donald Trump has fulfilled many of his campaign promises. He has cut taxes, launched trade wars, frustrated longtime international allies, cracked down on border crossings, and slashed the federal government. He steamrolled the opposition, including members of his own party, to push through Congress a far-reaching and expensive piece of legislation that contains nearly his entire domestic agenda.

“Economy of Genocide”: U.S. Sanctions U.N. Expert Who Reports on Corporate Profits from Israel’s Gaza War

We speak with United Nations expert Francesca Albanese, one day after the Trump administration announced it is imposing sanctions on her over her advocacy for Palestinian rights. Albanese has served as the U.N. special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2022. She recently released a report highlighting dozens of companies aiding Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and fueling its genocidal war machine in Gaza, including U.S. tech giants.

“Apocalypse in the Tropics”: Brazilian Filmmaker on Evangelicals, Bolsonaro & Trump’s Tariff Threat

Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa’s latest documentary, Apocalypse in the Tropics, explores the impact of evangelical Christianity on Brazil’s political landscape. Once a small minority, evangelicals now constitute about 30% of Brazil’s population and played a key role in the rise of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. “It’s one of the fastest-growing religious shifts in the history of mankind,” Costa tells Democracy Now! She says right-wing evangelicalism in Brazil is largely a U.S.

From Agents on Horseback in L.A. to a Chicago Arts Festival, Latino Communities Mobilize Against ICE

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is sowing fear and chaos in communities across the United States, as heavily armed and masked agents descend on workplaces, schools and public spaces. In Los Angeles, dozens of federal agents, including some on horseback, swept MacArthur Park, located in a predominantly immigrant and working-class part of the city. “It felt like an occupation of L.A.,” says Vladimir Carrasco, who works with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA.