The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: Beam Them Up, SpaceX
NASA announced the nine astronauts who will test spacecraft developed by Elon Musk’s company and Boeing.

Written by Madeleine Carlisle (@maddiecarlisle2) and Olivia Paschal (@oliviacpaschal)
Today in 5 Lines
-
NASA announced the nine astronauts who will take the first spaceflights from U.S. soil since 2011, aboard spacecraft developed by SpaceX and Boeing.
-
The Labor Department announced that the U.S. added 157,000 new jobs this month, about 30,000 less than expected.
-
China threatened to place $60 billion in new tariffs on American imports if the U.S. moves forward with its own tariffs on Chinese goods.
-
After a bitter primary fight, underdog Bill Lee won the Tennessee Republican gubernatorial primary on Thursday night.
-
During the fourth day of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s trial, his former accountant said that she filed tax returns she believed were false.
Today on The Atlantic
-
Alex Jones’s Legacy: Competing truths no longer pollute American discourse—competing lies do. (Megan Garber)
-
‘Witch Hunt’: With his repeated Twitter attacks on the Russia investigation, Trump is exploiting a psychological reality: Say something enough times, and people might start to believe it. (Olivia Paschal)
-
The Death of Bipartisan Romance?: The relationship between Grimes, the left-leaning singer, and Elon Musk, the maligned capitalist billionaire, has Twitter critics riled up. (Spencer Kornhaber)
-
A Calling: In predominantly rural states like Arkansas, governments often struggle to provide adequate foster care. But evangelical groups are stepping into the void. (Naomi Schaefer Riley)
-
Left in Limbo: The Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies have stranded nearly 100 Iranian Christians in Austria, with no relief in sight. (Krishnadev Calamur)
Snapshot

What We’re Reading
A Step Forward? The United States has restarted diplomatic conversations with the Taliban, and some experts are cautiously optimistic about a potential peace process. (Alex Ward, Vox)
More Than Ever: Meet the Native Americans who are running for office in record numbers. (Mark Trahant, High Country News)
A Place Called Hope: Everything might seem terrible, writes Jim Geraghty, but there are many reasons to be optimistic about America’s future. (National Review)
A Smaller Tent: As the Democratic Party moves to the left on abortion, it’s leaving the pro-life faction of the party behind. (Jennifer Haberkorn, Politico Magazine)
Visualized
The Wacky World of Chyrons: See how cable news uses chyrons to report on the president—and call him out. (Paul Farhi, The Washington Post)