Today's Liberal News

Meet George Retes, Disabled Army Vet to Sue Trump Admin over Unlawful ICE Detention

We speak with George Retes, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen and Army veteran who is taking on the federal government after he was detained by ICE for three days and three nights without explanation. Retes was arrested during a raid in July at a cannabis farm in Camarillo, California, where he worked as a security guard. Retes was driving to work when he encountered a checkpoint, where agents broke his car window, pepper-sprayed him and dragged him out of his vehicle for arrest.

Abrego Garcia Detained Again, Faces Deportation to Uganda After 3 Days of Freedom

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who became a symbol of Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown when the administration illegally sent him to El Salvador earlier this year, is at risk of being deported again — this time to Uganda, a country he has no ties to.
Abrego Garcia was one of hundreds of men sent to El Salvador in March to be jailed in that country’s brutal CECOT mega-prison, despite a court order specifically meant to prevent his deportation.

UNICEF Report from Gaza City: U.N. Declares Famine as Children Starve

We speak with UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram in Gaza City, where the world’s top authority on hunger has formally declared a famine. The United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, says the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza’s largest urban center puts about half a million Palestinians at risk of starving to death. Many aid agencies have lifesaving supplies sitting in warehouses outside Gaza that they are unable to distribute due to Israeli restrictions.

Israel Bombs Gaza Hospital, Kills 5 Journalists from AP, Al Jazeera, Reuters

Israeli airstrikes on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people Monday, including five Palestinian journalists. Eyewitnesses say Israel carried out a “double-tap” strike on the hospital. A drone initially hit the hospital’s roof, killing one journalist setting up a live stream, and then another strike hit journalists and rescue workers who were responding to the initial strike. “Israel knew exactly who was there,” says Palestinian writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada.

How Close Are Manatees to Extinction?

The Indian River Lagoon, a long braid of brackish mangroves and shifting islands, runs along Florida’s Atlantic coast. It is home to 4,300 species, including many of the state’s remaining manatees, whose large, paddle-tailed bodies graze slowly through the shallows. For decades, the lagoon has also been a destination for Florida’s municipal sewage. State law long ago aimed to stop much of the flow from wastewater plants, but in practice continued to allow dumping during heavy rains.

What Many Parents Miss About the Phones-in-Schools Debate

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here.
Someone keeps texting me while I’m at work, even after I asked her to stop, and I can’t block her, because she’s my 16-year-old daughter. A note sent during school lunch was about music lessons; she wanted to know what I thought about her switching from bassoon to cello. Another arrived in the middle of her third class: “For chem I need to bring in a half gallon of milk by Thursday.

Day Laborer Dies Fleeing ICE: Family Mourns, Community Demands Answers

Family and community members are mourning 52-year-old Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, a father and grandfather from Guatemala who died while attempting to escape an anti-immigrant raid at a Home Depot in California last week. Montoya, a day laborer who had lived and worked in the United States for about three years, was struck and killed by a car while fleeing across a nearby freeway.

EXCLUSIVE: Fired State Dept. Official Speaks Out, Suggested Condolences for Killed Gaza Journalists

Shahed Ghoreishi was fired from his position as a press officer for Israeli-Palestinian affairs at the U.S. State Department earlier this week. While no official explanation was given, Ghoreishi was involved in multiple departmental disputes over how to characterize U.S. positions on Israel’s forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the killings of Palestinian journalists.

“Commander-in-Cheat”: After Texas, Trump’s Redistricting Push Goes National

Democrats and Republicans are locked in a historic battle over congressional representation as Texas Republicans gerrymander the state’s district maps to flip five Democratic seats, at the request of President Trump. California Governor Gavin Newsom says he is fighting “fire with fire,” signing legislation to hold special elections for the public to approve a new gerrymandered map of their own.

Smithsonian Head Lonnie Bunch in 2020 on Telling “Unvarnished” History, Meeting Trump & More

President Trump said Tuesday the Smithsonian Institution was too narrowly focused on negative aspects of U.S. history, including “how bad slavery was.” Trump’s social media post minimizing the horrors of chattel slavery came after the White House ordered a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions in order to ensure they align with Trump’s interpretation of U.S. history.

Irresistible Contentment

I am talking my way back to the poem’s turn
and where it might lie outside my skirted body,
a corded place where bluish sky paints my attention,
and empties itself into a golden silence—
without talk or sound. Phrases now feel
perversely sentient and yet devilishly
wrong. Every night I talk with the hope
that speech itself will burn me
its one true alphabet.

Seven Summer-Weekend Reads

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.
On this late-summer weekend, read stories on what having a crush can teach you about yourself, the rise and fall of computer-science degrees, and how, exactly, America got so mean.
There Are Two Types of Dishwasher People
And only one of them really knows how to load it.