Today's Liberal News

Ukraine update: President Biden announces new $3B aid package on Ukrainian Independence Day

Aug. 24 is Ukrainian Independence Day. It also marks six months since Russian dictator Vladimir Putin began an illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. And now it marks the biggest U.S. military aid package since the war began.

President Joe Biden has made note of this occasion both by congratulating the Ukrainian people on their continued independence and by announcing a package of military aid designed to see that Ukraine stays a free and independent nation.

Republicans screech about student debt cancellation, while borrowers cry in relief

Republicans didn’t even wait for President Joe Biden to announce up to $20,000 in student debt relief before they started screeching about how terrible it would be for people who don’t have student debt and people who already paid off their student debt. The screeching has been going on for as long as debt cancellation has been discussed, but it reached a fever pitch as Biden’s announcement approached.

Biden’s Student-Loan Gamble

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.Although today’s big news from the White House is about student-loan forgiveness, we should note that it is Ukrainian Independence Day, which usually passes unnoticed outside of Ukraine.

War on Drugs Logic and Overdose Deaths

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. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Question of the WeekObservers disagree about law enforcement’s case against Donald Trump, the former president whose Florida mansion was recently searched by federal officials in pursuit of classified documents.

Biden’s Cancellation of Billions in Debt Won’t Solve the Larger Problem

For years, American lawmakers have chipped away at the fringes of reforming the student-loan system. They’ve flirted with it in doomed bills that would have reauthorized the Higher Education Act—which is typically renewed every five to 10 years but has not received an update since 2008. Meanwhile, the U.S. government’s student-debt portfolio has steadily grown to more than $1.5 trillion.

A Risky Monkeypox Vaccine Is Looking Better All the Time

The transition from Monkeypox Inoculation Plan A to Monkeypox Inoculation Plan B has been a smashing success—at least, if you ask federal officials. Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. had nowhere near enough of the Jynneos vaccine to doubly dose even a quarter of the Americans at highest risk of monkeypox, roughly 1.6 million men who have sex with men.

“War Poisons Everybody”: Remembering Legendary Historian Howard Zinn on His 100th Birthday

We remember the legendary historian, author, professor, playwright and activist Howard Zinn, who was born 100 years ago today. Zinn was a regular guest on Democracy Now! from the start of the program in 1996 up until his death in 2010 at age 87. After witnessing the horrors of World War II as a bombardier, Zinn became a peace and justice activist who picketed with his students at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and joined in actions such as opposing the Vietnam War.

Google Workers Demand Privacy for Abortion Searches & Want to Stop Ads for Anti-Abortion “Clinics”

We speak with one of the more than 650 workers calling on Google’s parent company Alphabet to protect the location and browser history of people searching for information on abortion. A petition led by the Alphabet Workers Union also demands the company block advertisements that misleadingly direct users to so-called crisis pregnancy centers, a tactic employed by anti-abortion activists to lure patients to discourage them from seeking abortions.

Live coverage: Aug. 23 primaries, runoffs, and specials in Florida, New York, and Oklahoma

Three states are holding primaries tonight. Oklahoma voters already went to the polls on June 28, but the state is now hosting runoffs in primaries where no one took a majority of the vote. New York also held primaries that day for statewide races, the state Assembly, and local office, but because the courts redrew the maps for the U.S. House and state Senate, those nomination contests are only taking place now.

News Roundup: Hundreds of classified documents found in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago stash

Any notion that Donald Trump’s move of highly classified national security documents to his private golf club was “accidental,” after his failed coup attempt and subsequent relinquishing of the White House, has gone by the wayside with the news that over 300 such documents were recovered by the FBI team sent to Mar-a-Lago to recover them. There’s no way that’s an oversight.

Ukraine Update: Russia seeks to freeze the conflict (again) as its war effort stagnates

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If a (Ukrainian counterattack) storm is in the cards sometime in the next month, this is the calm before it. If Ukraine still doesn’t have the ability to engage in a major combined arms operation, then it’s just … the calm. Here, thanks to Def Mon’s new interactive map, are Russia’s operations yesterday in the Donbas, the only place anyone tried to move at all.

How Early-2000s Pop Culture Changed Sex

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.The feminist writer and activist Ellen Willis is best known for defining the idea of pro-sex feminism in the 1980s. But only a little while later, Willis noticed that women’s liberated sexuality had turned out to be, as she put it, “often depressingly shallow, exploitative, and joyless.

The Spookiest Sound in Astronomy

Ah, the sounds of late summer. Pass a pool, and hear the happy yelps of kids splashing around. Sit outside at night, and bask in the soothing buzz of cicadas hidden in the trees. Open the internet, and hear the terrifying howling of outer space.Thank NASA for that last one. The space agency recently shared a clip online of sound coming from a cluster of galaxies about 250 million light-years from Earth.