Few Americans know more about occupying a country and then facing a determined armed resistance than David Petraeus. The former four-star general and ex-director of the CIA wrote his Ph.D. thesis about the Vietnam War; helped oversee the writing of the U.S. Army’s counterinsurgency field manual; was its commanding officer in Iraq during the surge of troops there; and then ran U.S.

Of the great male voices to come out of the grunge era—Kurt Cobain’s, Layne Staley’s, Chris Cornell’s—the greatest was Mark Lanegan’s. It was simultaneously the fullest and the most evacuated by sorrow, the warmest and the closest to the grave, the strongest and the most self-immolating, the purest and the most polluted, the largest-hearted and the loneliest.

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. Every Friday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Inflation is high. So are gas prices. War in Ukraine could exacerbate both.

It’s February 15, 11 p.m. my time and just past 6 a.m. the next day Kyiv time, still dark. The Reuters livestream camera is pointed at Independence Square. Maidan. Light from the city reflects in the predawn sky, which turns purple, then red, then pink, then gray. This may be the day Russia moves deeper into Ukraine, American intelligence reportedly says. In the bottom-right corner of my screen, I notice that the building that burned during the 2014 Revolution of Dignity has been rebuilt.

Several years ago, Paul Farmer and I both spoke at a conference at Harvard on the history and future of global health. As our program finished, Paul was immediately inundated with a throng of students eager to speak with the guru of the field, the man who inspired us all and asked more of each of us. I shuffled off to speak with the few avoiding the crowd.After Paul finished with the students, he came over to give me a hug, and we made small talk.

As The Atlantic continues its editorial focus on exposing the crisis facing democracy and the rise of global authoritarianism, today the editors announced that the Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa is joining the magazine as a contributing writer. Read more in a note to staff from editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, executive editor Adrienne LaFrance, and editorial director Denise Wills.

Updated at 5:00 p.m. ET on February 22, 2022In the space of a month, Vladimir Putin has effectively managed to transform a former Soviet state into an extension of Russian territory, in full view of the United States and Europe, without firing a single shot in the country.

The weatherman’s striped tie is still snug on his neck as he starts an evening bath for his three kids, one of whom bolts naked from the bathroom and does a lap around the kitchen before running back, feet slapping on the hardwood floor. “Okay,” Shel Winkley says, walking into the kitchen where his wife is loading the dishwasher. “I love you,” he tells her, and then he walks outside to his gray Prius, gets in, and drives to the TV station. Dinner’s over.

The actor Julia Fox met Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, on New Year’s Eve in Miami, and by the following week she was on the phone with Interview, providing behind-the-scenes commentary on all of the photos of them wearing dramatic outfits, going on expensive outings, and kissing on the floor.The first flashy celebrity romance of 2022 was glamorous to some and unsettling to others.