Ukraine recaptured 78 square miles from Russia last week—nearly the equivalent to Russia’s gains in December. / France 24

Now entering its fifth year, the war has become Europe’s largest conventional conflict since World War II. / Foreign Affairs

Brief notes on a drone strike on a crowded market in central Sudan, where the war is now three years old. / Africa News

Unrelated: Using a pair of buildings to understand what makes Seoul Seoul. / S(ubstack)-Bahn. 

Political scientists say whether or not the United States has slid into a kind of “competitive authoritarianism” will be tested in November. / NPR

Jesse Jackson, “one of the last Civil Rights era legends,” dies at 84. / The Root

If you wonder where wealthy people go to vacation with other wealthy people, consider Nobu Maldives: 10 private islands, each with its own private yacht. / Uncrate

Millions of people have downloaded Tinder in Saudi Arabia over the past five years. Meanwhile, Grindr in the US is said to be a ghost town. / The Wall Street Journal [$], Vox [$]

A married couple that doesn’t speak each other’s languages explain how they rely on smartphones (and eight backup batteries) to translate for them. / The New York Times [$]

Regarding AI, Anthropic’s CEO claims we’re in a “centaur” period, where humans and bots perform better together. / The New York Times [$]

See also: “Maxxing is not a natural feature of human life; through most of human history it could barely exist.” / Numb at the Lodge

Everything you need to know but were afraid to ask about odd murals at McDonald’s. / cabel.com

A supercut of David Lynch swearing, announcing the weather, catching ideas like fish. / Open Culture

Sara Hussain says she’s no longer interested in working on herself. “It’s fine if I suck sometimes.” / Vogue India

And now a brief chat with new Sustaining Member, Alana C.!

Alana, hello! When did you start reading The Morning News? Hello! I started reading The Morning News ages ago, and why it has taken me until this week to support and to unlock all those extra links is a mystery. Maybe it was just the continued “enshittification” of news, or my dissatisfaction with all the Twitter replacements, but something made today the day to click the button. It is way overdue! 

Well, thank you! Andrew and I really appreciate it. And if we may ask, what is it about TMN that works for you? I love that The Morning News feels like the way the internet was in the early 2000s, when everything was still kind of a blog, and when you could feel the personalities behind each site. I recommend The Morning News to people all the time, as a way to stay informed but avoid doomscrolling. The news is a lot everywhere, but especially for Americans, and I really appreciate the work put in every day reading all this stuff so we don’t have to, and curating the best of the best for its readers. Good curation is a gift, and worth supporting.

In the members area, unlocked links from the Wall Street Journal, Vox, and the New York Times ↓