Today's Liberal News

Carrie Prejean Boller Is Not Going Quietly

“It is not a biblical mandate that I have to worship Israel,” Carrie Prejean Boller told me today. The former Miss California USA turned social-media influencer was dismissed from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission yesterday after drawing charges of anti-Semitism. But, she wanted to make clear, she regrets nothing—and has no intention of disappearing without a fight.
On Tuesday, the Religious Liberty Commission held its fifth hearing, in Washington, D.C.

What Fabulous Timing for Gallup to Stop Tracking Presidential Approval!

Two men from headquarters walked out to the corral to tell the pollster the news. They were a big man and a little man. They were identically attired, in a dark suit and dark glasses. Both carried a briefcase.
The pollster was leaning against the split-rail fence, looking at the horses. (The horses had started to appear 88 years ago due to a misspelling of Gallup. A new one arrived with each completed poll.)
“It’s not because the president’s approval rating has been so low,” the big man said.

Today’s Atlantic Trivia: What Stoic Got Rome Through a Plague?

Updated with new questions at 5:30 p.m. ET on February 12, 2026.
You won’t find this in Cortina d’Ampezzo over the next few weeks, but for several decades of the Olympics’ history, the contest awarded medals not just for sport but for art too.
In the Summer Games from 1912 to 1948, musicians, painters, and plenty of other aesthetes went brain-to-brain in events such as lyric poetry and chamber music. “Town planning” was even contested one year under the umbrella of the architecture competition.

A 168-Year-Old Question Still Worth Asking

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present. Sign up here.
A vivid rumor began circulating in the United States in the middle of the 1850s. It was said that Robert Toombs, the ardently pro-slavery Georgia senator, was going to come to Boston and “call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill.

“I Was Just So Disgusted”: Jewish Rep. Balint Walks Out of Hearing After Bondi Calls Her Antisemitic

As we continue to look at Wednesday’s contentious hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, we speak with Vermont Congressmember Becca Balint, who walked out after Attorney General Pam Bondi accused her of supporting antisemitism. Balint, who is Jewish and whose grandfather died in the Holocaust, had just asked Bondi to meet with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein — a demand that Bondi repeatedly ignored during the hearing.

Netanyahu Seeks to Kill U.S.-Iran Talks to Start Another War: Mouin Rabbani

President Donald Trump held a lengthy meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday at the White House, where the two leaders discussed ongoing nuclear talks with Iran. Trump has said he wants to reach a deal with Iran about the country’s nuclear program, which Tehran insists is only for peaceful civilian purposes but which the U.S. and Israel claim is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

“Massive Cover-Up”: Rep. Jayapal Slams AG Pam Bondi over Epstein Files & Spying on Lawmakers

Attorney General Pam Bondi testified Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, where she repeatedly refused to answer questions about her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. She also refused to apologize to Epstein survivors over the botched release of files, some of which contained survivors’ personal information and even uncensored nude photographs.