Today's Liberal News

Bring the OJ

Josh, when living
your best life you are a floodgate,
the last restraint between
us open mouths and feelings
we had never had or have had since.
Until you, we didn’t know the sky
could turn purple, or that our
bruised bodies could be targets
for a kiss—from beneath a mustache,
yes, or from a needle. Thank you
for teaching me to suffer
with company. Thank you
for showing us that together
we can weather even weeks
of rattling at death’s door.

I’ll Always Love the Original Buffy the Vampire Slayer

“All I want to do is graduate from high school, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater, and die.” That line, from the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, may have been spoken by a teenager, but they were the words of a child. That’s why it stood out to me as a prepubescent girl—before I got my period, before I got existential, before I stopped caring about vampires (if I ever did).

Every New Disease Triggers a Search for Someone to Blame

This summer, yet another disease unfamiliar to most people in the United States is being transmitted around the world—as is the impulse to find someone to blame. Many news stories about the current monkeypox outbreak make reference to a “patient zero,” supposedly the one person who brought the virus into a particular state or community. This kind of finger-pointing, which long predates monkeypox, is a deeply flawed framing.

Abortion Is Literally on the Ballot in Kansas

OLATHE, Kansas—It’s 102 degrees, and the rally to save abortion rights has drawn a crowd of exactly one.Cassie Woolworth, the head of a local Democratic women’s club, has commandeered as her base of operations a concrete barricade meant to deter would-be terrorists outside the Johnson County courthouse. She unfurls a banner that says Trust Women alongside an image of Rosie the Riveter and hangs it between a trash can and a street sign.

John Fetterman Is Very Online. That’s Not Why He’s Ahead.

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.The Democrat running to be Pennsylvania’s next senator is famous for his ultracasual aesthetic and irreverent social-media strategy.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

Prison Health Expert Warns Monkeypox Could “Dramatically Increase” Behind Bars, Calls for CDC Action

The first case of monkeypox behind bars was reported in Chicago this week, and health experts are warning that jails could accelerate the spread as they are dangerously unprepared to combat against a virus that spreads through close physical contact. We speak with Dr. Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for New York City’s Correctional Health Services, whose new op-ed for The Hill is headlined ”CDC must act to prevent monkeypox explosion in prisons.

“Hellholes”: Heat Waves Worsen Conditions in Prisons with No Air Conditioning, Understaffing

As tens of millions of people in the United States live under heat alerts this summer, we look at conditions faced by those in prisons and jails with poor cooling systems and lack of access to running water. “Although heat has been an ongoing issue in Texas, this year it’s exacerbated by a staffing crisis that’s been years in the making,” says Keri Blakinger, the first formerly incarcerated reporter for The Marshall Project.

“Our Lives Depend on Passing Climate Policy”: Meet Congressional Staffer Arrested in Senate Protest

Before a deal emerged this week on a bill to address the climate emergency, six congressional staffers were arrested Monday on Capitol Hill as they held a nonviolent civil disobedience protest inside the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, urging him to reopen negotiations on the bill. We speak with Saul Levin, one of the staffers who was arrested, and discuss the role the action had in pushing the bill forward.

Why Is AIPAC Spending Millions in Primary to Defeat Rep. Andy Levin, a Former Synagogue President?

As the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) invests millions in Democratic primaries to defeat progressives who support Palestine, we speak to one of the candidates: Michigan Congressmember Andy Levin, whose primary is on Tuesday. He is a self-described Zionist who supports a two-state solution, but earlier this year a former president of AIPAC described him as “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Ukraine update: Atrocity

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was both illegal and unprovoked. Every life lost in this conflict, both Ukrainian and Russian, is a murder that belongs to Russia alone, and specifically to dictator Vladimir Putin, who personally made the decision to begin this needless slaughter. This doesn’t just apply to the tens of thousands who have died in the invasion that began on Feb.

Coalition calls on Biden and Schumer to ditch fossil fuel provisions in Manchin climate deal

In a letter Friday, more than 360 environmental and community organizations asked President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to “Hold the line against fossil fuel expansion” and oppose what one signatory—the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)—labeled fossil fuel “poison pills” tucked into the final pages of the 725-page Inflation Reduction Act hammered out behind the scenes by Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin.

Of Course Biden Has Rebound COVID

Four days after recovering from a COVID-19 infection, President Joe Biden has tested positive again. When he first got sick, Biden—like more than one-third of the Americans who have tested positive for COVID-19 this summer, according to the U.S. government’s public records—was prescribed Paxlovid, an antiviral pill treatment made by Pfizer. Like many Paxlovid takers, he soon tested negative and resumed his normal activities.