Today's Liberal News

Report: Jan. 6 probe now ‘extensively cooperating’ with Justice Department

The Jan. 6 committee is sharing more of its records and transcripts freely with the Justice Department after it received a letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith requesting the committee’s documents, Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based news outlet, Special Counsel Smith issued the request on Dec. 5. A committee spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

Against Skiing

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.I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you about some of the funniest things that happened in politics this year. Today, though, I would like to offer a break from current events. Sorry in advance, skiers. I hope you are too busy skiing to read this newsletter.

‘No One Wants to Talk About Mortality’

Joanna Hogg is probably the most understated filmmaker to currently have an entire cinematic universe revolving around her. The British director emerged with her 2007 debut feature, Unrelated, which had an autobiographical tinge, and went on to make two other brilliantly quiet interpersonal dramas, Archipelago and Exhibition. But it was with 2019’s The Souvenir that Hogg began to build out an interconnected series that blurs the line between fiction and memoir.

Megan Thee Stallion Is the Victim, Not the Defendant

Daystar Peterson, the performer known as Tory Lanez, is on trial in Los Angeles after he allegedly shot fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in both of her feet two years ago. But in the court of public opinion, she is the person who’s really being judged.The critically acclaimed, top-selling artist, whose real name is Megan Pete, was injured in a July 2020 incident that began as she, Peterson, and others were driving away from a party.

We Haven’t Seen the Worst of Fake News

It was 2018, and the world as we knew it—or rather, how we knew it—teetered on a precipice. Against a rising drone of misinformation, The New York Times, the BBC, Good Morning America, and just about everyone else sounded the alarm over a new strain of fake but highly realistic videos. Using artificial intelligence, bad actors could manipulate someone’s voice and face in recorded footage almost like a virtual puppet and pass the product off as real.

In Historic First, House Committee Urges DOJ to Criminally Charge Trump for Jan. 6 Insurrection

We feature excerpts from the final hearing of the House January 6 committee that resulted in Monday’s unanimous vote to recommend criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. The committee’s 18-month investigation determined that Trump intended to disrupt the results of the 2020 presidential election and played a central role in the U.S. Capitol insurrection. This marks the first time in U.S.

Biden, Like Trump Before Him, Derails Effort to End U.S. Support for Saudi War in Yemen

A new UNICEF report finds that over 11,000 children have been killed or injured in the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen since 2015. A six-month ceasefire between warring parties expired in October. Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders withdrew a Senate resolution Tuesday that would have ended U.S. support for the war, following pressure from the White House. Sanders said he would bring the resolution back if they could not reach an agreement.

Four criminal referrals for Trump; Jan. 6 probe releases executive summary of final report

For its final hearing, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol voted unanimously to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department for former President Donald Trump, formally accusing him of four crimes, including aiding an insurrection. 

In addition to the insurrection referral, the committee said it amassed sufficient evidence indicating Trump criminally obstructed the joint session of Congress on Jan.

Ukraine update: Russia’s shrinking war effort, failing drone attacks, and the defense of Soledar

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In case you missed it the last few weeks:

A high-level overview of the current active front. I wrote that nearly a month ago, but nothing has changed since. 
A look at Ukraine’s future offensive options. This piece is two weeks old, and for sure nothing has changed. Ukraine won’t launch any winter offensive until the ground is good and frozen. General Mud doesn’t care if it’s Russia or Ukraine on the march.

Unstaffed and seething, Donald Trump in exile is the grifting crook he always was

I’m a fan of the little details in this Washington Post story on Donald Trump’s post-presidential, post-attempted-coup life, cooped up inside his Mar-a-Lago home and resort. That Trump is being chauffeured around his golf course in a cart that sports a laptop or a laptop and printer combo so that his driver can show him “uplifting” news or internet posts between swings may not qualify as news, but it is certainly informative and deeply funny.