Today's Liberal News

Afghanistan vet says Afghan allies who risked lives are ‘deserving to resettle in the U.S.’

U.S Marine veteran Joseph Dietzel writes in Military Times that he had no idea his interpreter Mustafa Aahangaran would become one of his closest friends after being deployed to Afghanistan back in 2010. Dietzel writes that before his deployment, he’d never even met anyone from Afghanistan before.

He said the two soon became “practically inseparable,” sharing meals and stories throughout a dangerous mission.

The Bonfire of the Headscarves

No one can predict how a revolution starts. Nor can anyone know when one injustice will be what causes a people’s fury to overcome their fear. In 2011, in Tunisia, a street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, sparked an uprising by setting himself on fire. In 2022, in Iran, the death in police custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, has brought Iranians onto the streets in every corner of the country.

Hilary Mantel’s Art Was Infused With Her Pain

“Once the queen’s head is severed, he walks away. A sharp pang of appetite reminds him that it is time for a second breakfast, or perhaps an early dinner.”These are the first two sentences of T​he Mirror and ​the Light, the third volume of Hilary Mantel’s ​trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell and the last book she published before she died on Thursday at the lamentably young age of 70.

How I Finally Learned My Name

The email came from a stranger. “Dear Mr. Temple,” it said. “My name is Andrea Paiss, and I live in Budapest, Hungary. I do not know whether I write to the right person. I just hope so.”
It reached me in San Francisco on January 1, 2020, and told of a “Granny,” then 92, who wanted to know what had happened to her cousin Lorant Stein.

Did a Famous Doctor’s COVID Shot Make His Cancer Worse?

On September 22 of last year, Michel Goldman, a Belgian immunologist and one of Europe’s best-known champions of medical research, walked into a clinic near his house, rolled up his sleeve, and had a booster shot delivered to his arm. He knew he’d need it more than most.Just a few weeks earlier, Michel, 67, had been to see his younger brother, Serge, the head of nuclear medicine at the hospital of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where both men are professors.

Ukraine update: Ukraine is across the Oskil, and across the Oskil, and across the Oskil, and …

On Friday, the majority of the action when it comes to a counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces is along the Oskil River. But while attention has lately been focused on the city of Lyman and Ukrainian forces maneuvering to encircle the Russian forces there, it’s far from the only location east of Oskil seeing action.

Ukraine is pushing across the Oskil River in at least four locations.

Is AI Art a ‘Toy’ or a ‘Weapon’?

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our coverage of The Atlantic Festival. Learn more and watch festival sessions here.
Earlier this year, the technology company OpenAI released a program called DALL-E 2, which uses artificial intelligence to transform text into visual art. People enter prompts (“plasticine nerd working on a 1980s computer”) and the software returns images that showcase humanlike vision and execution, veer into the bizarre, and might even tease creativity.

Geek Wars

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.Pop-culture franchises such as Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones—which grew this year to include Amazon’s The Rings of Power and HBO’s House of the Dragon, respectively—have recently begun diversifying their casts.