Today's Liberal News

Why the Russian Military Brutalizes Ukraine

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.War is always a brutal business, but why is the Russian military so determined to inflict civilian casualties on neighboring Ukraine? I talked with a fellow Russia expert.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

No One Performed Britishness Better Than Her Majesty

There’s an episode of—please bear with me here—the children’s animated television series Peppa Pig in which Peppa, the fearless porcine queen of toddler hearts everywhere, meets another queen, one who lives in a palace and wears a crown, and might be, one of Peppa’s friends suggests, “the boss of all the world.” At first encounter, this queen sits on a throne, knitting; she speaks in clipped, commanding tones.

Are We Really Getting COVID Boosters Every Year Forever?

School is in session, pumpkin spice is in season, and Americans are heading to pharmacies for what may soon become another autumn standby: your annual COVID shot. On Tuesday, the White House announced the start of a “new phase” of the pandemic response, one in which “most Americans” will receive a COVID-19 vaccine just “once a year, each fall.

Welcome to Saturday Night in America

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How She Did It

It’s a crazy system.The symbol of the state, the theoretical supreme executive of the country, is chosen by birth order within a single family. If that system produces an extreme dud, he or she may be maneuvered off the throne, as the late Queen Elizabeth’s uncle David—who reigned as Edward VIII—was maneuvered off in 1936. But Edward was recklessly irresponsible and weak-willed. The normal rule is: Next in line gets the job.

Barbara Ehrenreich Remembered: How She Covered Poverty & Started Economic Hardship Reporting Project

We continue to remember the life and legacy of writer and activist Barbara Ehrenreich, who died on September 1 at the age of 81, as we speak with her friend and colleague Alissa Quart, executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, which Ehrenreich founded and which continues to support journalists who cover and embody the struggles of everyday people.

Ukraine Update: Taking stock of Ukraine’s advances … and Russia’s losses

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Remember when we’d sit here and talk, months on end, about Ukraine “shaping the battlefield” and dream of future counterattacks? We never lacked topics to discuss, but there was breathing room to explore topics in great depth. But I like this better! 

Mark Sumner tracked territorial changes this morning, and all I can add to that is “Ukraine has probably pushed further ahead.

Department of Justice will appeal the ruling granting Trump a ‘special master’ over stolen documents

The ruling from Judge Aileen Cannon, which grants Donald Trump an unprecedented “special master” and enjoins the Department of Justice from using the documents Trump stole in their criminal investigation, will be appealed. The ruling was always ridiculous and posed a threat to both the law and national security.

Now the Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it will appeal Cannon’s ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Republicans don’t want to talk about the national security cost of Trump’s document theft

At this moment, thanks to a twisted ruling from a Trump-appointed judge, the Department of Justice can’t use the classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago in its ongoing criminal investigation. However, intelligence agencies are still working to respond to what was found in an unsecured store room, in a faux-leather cardboard box kept on a shelf in plain view, and in the drawers of Donald Trump’s desk.

The impact on national security is hard to overestimate.

Michigan Supreme Court orders board to place abortion protections, voting rights on November ballot

In a just-released ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court has ordered the Board of State Canvassers to certify for the ballot the Reproductive Freedom For All petition intended to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. “It is undisputed that there are sufficient signatures to warrant certification,” notes the court, while shooting down arguments over “sufficient space between certain words.

Advocates in angel wings shield LGBTQ event from 100 protesters yelling slurs in Utah

LGBTQ+ people and allies are absolutely everywhere—and that includes religious spaces and higher education. One example of this comes to us out of Brigham Young University (BYU), a school operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Provo, Utah. You might remember we covered the brave story of graduate Jillian Orr, an openly bisexual woman who went viral for revealing the Pride flag under her commencement robes.

The Silent Sovereign

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.Queen Elizabeth II, who died today at age 96, was a “north star” for her subjects through seven decades of transformation. Our London-based staff writer Helen Lewis corresponded with me this afternoon about the late monarch’s singular legacy.