Today's Liberal News

After Jan. 6, Meadows & Giuliani Sought Pardons; Cheney Says Trump Allies Tampering with Witnesses

Former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, revealed Tuesday to the House January 6 committee that Meadows and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani both sought pardons after the insurrection. Meanwhile, in a video deposition with Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who supported Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, Flynn repeatedly refused to answer questions from committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney.

News roundup: Supreme Court shreds administrative governance, sets sights on democracy itself

The Supreme Court continued to dismantle the very foundations of civil rights and government with a new ruling today claiming that government agencies cannot pass regulations touching on “major questions” if Congress has not written a law authorizing those specific regulations. What counts as a “major question?” Whatever six archconservative Supreme Court justices handpicked for their hostility toward regulations declare to be one, that’s what.

San Antonio semi-truck victims sought to help sick loved ones, reunite with family

While officials have said it could possibly take weeks to identify all 53 victims from this past week’s horrific tragedy in San Antonio, some are now publicly known. Two of the youngest were just 13, The Washington Post reports. 

Pascual Melvin Guachiac Sipac and Juan Wilmer Tulul Tepaz, Indigenous cousins from Guatemala, started their journey just over two weeks ago. Pascual was seeking to reunite with his dad in the U.S., the report said.

The Summer of Our Discontent

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 remember fondly the way Washington would shut down in the summer so that the city could give itself a breather, but that was before our politics went haywire.First, here’s more from The Atlantic.
The Supreme Court’s EPA ruling is going to be very, very expensive.

Is Biden a Man Out of Time?

The White House’s response to last week’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which in 1973 established a constitutional right to abortion, once again has exposed the tension between the conciliatory instincts President Joe Biden developed during his long career in Washington, D.C., and the ferocity of the modern combat between the two major political parties.

Marcel the Shell Is the Hero the World Needs

This world was not built for the likes of Marcel, the stop-motion-animated minuscule shell who sports pink shoes. Riding in a car makes him vomit repeatedly, unreachable itches make him scream, and typing a single word using a laptop keyboard becomes a full-body workout. Marcel, voiced by the actor and comedian Jenny Slate, can be terribly naive and, given his predilection for corny one-liners, unnervingly candid. (“Guess why I smile a lot?” he observes.

The Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling Is Going to Be Very, Very Expensive

Today’s major environmental ruling from the Supreme Court, West Virginia v. EPA, is probably most notable for what it did not do.It did not say that the Environmental Protection Agency is prohibited from regulating heat-trapping carbon pollution from America’s existing power plants.It also did not strip the EPA of its ability to regulate climate pollution at all.

ACLU’s David Cole: Supreme Court Conservatives Imposing “Truly Radical Ideology” on U.S. Population

As the Supreme Court ends its term, Justice Stephen Breyer is officially retiring, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson takes his place as the country’s first Black woman justice, joining a court dominated by conservatives. We speak to ACLU national legal director David Cole about what can be done in the face of lifetime judicial appointments to the nation’s highest court who often rule counter to majority opinion in the country.

Anatol Lieven on NATO Expansion & What a Ukraine Peace Settlement Could Look Like

The United States announced at a NATO summit in Madrid plans to build a permanent military base in Poland, as it formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance after they applied for membership in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We look at the impact of prolonged U.S. military presence in Europe and the overemphasis on Russia or China as enemies to the West at a time when threats to Western liberal democracy seem to be primarily internal.