Today's Liberal News

What It Would Take to Avoid a Shutdown

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 U.S. government is on the brink of a shutdown, and the deadline for Congress to pass a new spending bill is September 30.

The Next Supercontinent Could Be a Terrible, Terrible Place

About 250 million years from now, living on the coast could feel like being stuck inside a hot, wet plastic bag. And that bag would actually be the best home on the planet. Inland areas would be hotter than summer in the Gobi Desert, and up to four times as dry. This is life on Pangea Ultima, the supercontinent that an international group of scientists has predicted will form on Earth in a quarter of a billion years.

A Little Bit O’ Magic in Chicago

Sign up for Kaitlyn and Lizzie’s newsletter here.Kaitlyn: We know it’s not called “the Windy City” because of the wind, but we don’t remember why it’s actually called that. Maybe it’s because, on our eighth annual fall trip, Ashley took me and Lizzie to her hometown of Chicago for a whirlwind tour of its most important sights. Hmm?We went to the Bean.

What I Found in a Database Meta Uses to Train Generative AI

Editor’s note: This article is part of The Atlantic’s series on Books3. You can search the database for yourself here, and read about its origins here.This summer, I reported on a data set of more than 191,000 books that were used without permission to train generative-AI systems by Meta, Bloomberg, and others.

These 183,000 Books Are Fueling the Biggest Fight in Publishing and Tech

Editor’s note: This searchable database is part of The Atlantic’s series on Books3. You can read about the origins of the database here, and an analysis of what’s in it here.This summer, I acquired a data set of more than 191,000 books that were used without permission to train generative-AI systems by Meta, Bloomberg, and others.

Clarence Thomas & the Koch Network: ProPublica Reveals SCOTUS Justice Attended Fundraising Events

A new damning investigation from ProPublica reveals Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attended multiple fundraisers in connection with the billionaire Koch brothers, who have spent millions on conservative causes and funneled vast donations into Republican campaigns. “None of this was disclosed as it should have been on his annual financial disclosures,” says Justin Elliott, reporter for ProPublica covering Supreme Court corruption and ethics.

Striking Hollywood Writers Reach Tentative Deal with Studios After 146 Days on Picket Line

The Writers Guild of America has announced that a tentative deal has been reached between striking writers and Hollywood studios, four months after the strikes shut down production of scripted movies and television. The WGA leadership will meet Tuesday to vote on the deal, which includes many of the demands of the striking writers, including higher pay and residual payments for streaming content and new rules about the use of artificial intelligence.

Rep. Ro Khanna on “Chaos” in House as Shutdown Nears, UAW Strike & Murder of Canadian Sikh Leader

Fears are growing of another U.S. government shutdown as soon as October 1, with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unable to overcome opposition from far-right lawmakers in his own party to pass spending measures to keep the government funded. For more on what’s happening on Capitol Hill, we speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California, who says the chaos of a shutdown will hurt many ordinary people as federal workers go unpaid and public services suffer.

Despite “Symbolic Rebukes” of Israel & Netanyahu, Will Biden’s Legacy Be Apartheid?

President Biden has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House later this year after the two leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations this week. The invitation is a major victory for Netanyahu and comes as his far-right government guts the power of the judiciary and moves closer to full annexation of the West Bank, with Israeli forces killing hundreds of Palestinians so far this year.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro Denounces U.S. Intervention in Americas, from Chilean Coup to Drug War

Colombian President Gustavo Petro says the U.S.-backed coup in Chile 50 years ago, when General Augusto Pinochet deposed socialist President Salvador Allende, left a lasting scar across Latin America. Many progressives took up arms against corrupt governments, often led by “Nazis,” Petro says, fueling decades of conflict that is only now beginning to fade.