Today's Liberal News

Knocked Up and the American Impulse to Edit Out Abortion

Early in Knocked Up, Ben Stone (played by Seth Rogen) tells his friends that a one-night stand has ended in pregnancy. Ben’s friend Jonah (Jonah Hill) offers him advice on the matter. “It rhymes with shma-shmortion,” Jonah says. “I’m just saying … you should get a shma-shmortion at the shma-shmortion clinic.”Knocked Up is now 15 years old. It premiered in 2007, a product of raunch culture and one of its bards, the director Judd Apatow.

What’s the Point of Going to Brett Kavanaugh’s House?

CHEVY CHASE, Md.—A few of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s neighbors were visibly annoyed last night as a dozen abortion-rights protesters marched down their tree-lined street, blaring music and chanting, “We are not your incubators!” A middle-aged couple in jogging suits scoffed and yanked their goldendoodle to the other side of the road. One woman driving an SUV pulled up dangerously close to a demonstrator and laid on the horn.

Behold, the Bottomless Pit Holding Everything Together

We live in the inner rim of one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms, a shimmery curve against inky darkness. Travel for thousands of light-years in one direction, past countless stars, countless planets, and countless moons, and you’d reach the outer edge of the Milky Way, where the last bits of our galaxy give way to the sprawling stillness of the intergalactic medium.

2021 Nobel Literature Prize Winner Abdulrazak Gurnah on Colonialism & the Power of Language

We speak with Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, which recognized his “uncompromising and compassionate” writing about colonialism and the refugee experience. He is the first Black writer to win the award since Toni Morrison almost 30 years ago and the first Black African writer to win the prize since 1986. Gurnah discusses his work, which explores displacement, migration and “historical moments that create us.

Ukrainian Author Andrey Kurkov: Russia’s War Is Targeting Ukraine’s Culture, History & Identity

We speak with renowned Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov, president of PEN Ukraine, about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its third month. “The war looks like the war against Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian history and Ukrainian identity,” says Kurkov. He says daily life in Kyiv is “coming back but very fragile” as Russia is said to be preparing a second attempt to occupy the capital.

Rashid Khalidi: Israel Systematically Targets Palestinian Journalists to Hide Reality of Occupation

Palestinians are holding a state funeral in Ramallah for Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran journalist who was one of the best-known television journalists in Palestine and the Arab world. Abu Akleh, who was a U.S. citizen, was wearing a press uniform and covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank when she was fatally shot in the head on Wednesday.

What Do Female Incels Really Want?

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.    “We were all ugly,” Amanda, a 22-year-old student from Florida told me, recalling the online community she found when she was 18. “Men didn’t like us, guys didn’t want to be with us, and it was fine to acknowledge it.

Ukraine update: ‘Their objective was to cross the river and encircle Lysychansk. They failed.’

The fact that 24 hours later we’re still waiting for confirmation of Ukrainian forces at Ternova is certainly concerning, but then, it took at least that long to confirm that Ukraine had recaptured Staryi Saltiv. It’s almost as if the Ukrainian troops at the vanguard of assaults in the Kharkiv area have been told to not immediately send video clips and photographs—conveniently geolocated—of their every move.

‘She, not he’: Psaki has no patience for Fox News reporter’s gotcha question

White House press secretary Jen Psaki continues her farewell slam dunk contest tour. On Tuesday, she spoke with reporters about the Biden administration’s plans to lower inflation and help the working families and seniors in our country that are most affected by the widening economic inequality in our society.

The Biden administration didn’t have much work to do since Sen.

Tucker Carlson wastes no time being racist about new White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

Okay, I’ll admit that I rarely watch Fox News, much less Tucker Carlson, but even from what I have watched, his latest attack Tuesday on the new White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was more homophobic and racist than usual.

I guess Carlson really wanted to say how much he hates that a Black, out LGBTQ+ person was in a position of power. That wouldn’t fill enough air-time, though, so he went on a vicious, bigoted attack.

The Email That Shows the Absurdity of the Paperwork Coup

One of the most dangerous elements of Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election is how it collapsed the gap between two distinct functions: electioneering and election administration. Both are political, insofar as elected officials oversee elections, but they begin from different premises.

Can Anyone Out-Plan a Pandemic?

In this, the season of Bill Gates’s atonement, the billionaire is willing to acknowledge that things don’t always turn out as they should have, and that—at least in some cases—that’s on him.

Heartstopper and the Era of Feel-Good, Queer-Teen Romances

When the producer Patrick Walters first read the romance comic Heartstopper, he knew it had to be a TV show. There was something about the way the author, Alice Oseman, had illustrated the story that gave him “butterflies,” he told me over Zoom. The characters—a pair of teen boys falling in love—were adorably expressive, all wide eyes and furtive glances captured in fine strokes.

Is Gen Z Coddled, or Caring?

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.