Today's Liberal News

The Future of the “Great Resignation”

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 latest jobs data give a mixed picture of the economy—and raise questions about how America’s workers will fare.First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Joe Scarborough: “America is doing just fine.

It Was Only a Matter of Time Before Everyone Started Dressing Like Kramer

In 1994, Charmaine Simmons, the costume supervisor for Seinfeld, had a problem: People wanted to dress like Kramer, Jerry’s eccentric, ever-interrupting neighbor, played by Michael Richards. This was one of the better problems a television series could have: Seinfeld was the most popular show on American television that year, and its idiosyncratic style and humor had started to influence pop culture far beyond its Thursday-night time slot. But the problem existed nevertheless.

Earth Is a Potato

Earth, in most renderings, is a smooth sphere with a glossy complexion—a blue marble, as pictures snapped from space have shown us. Earth scientists know that’s not exactly true. Earth, in fact, is an ellipsoid, a little bit squashed at the poles and fat around the equator, not to mention speckled with mountain ranges. And then you have the geoid people—the ones who think of Earth less as an imperfect sphere and more as a lumpy potato.C. K.

Readers’ Thoughts on Affirmative Action

Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf 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.The week before last I asked readers for their thoughts on the Supreme Court’s affirmative-action decision.Replies have been edited for length and clarity.R.

Tennessee’s War on Trans People: Court OKs Ban on Gender-Affirming Care as AG Demands Medical Records

A federal appeals court has ruled the Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth could go into effect for now, reversing a lower court order. It marks the first time a federal court has allowed such a ban on transition care to fully take hold in the United States, amid a wave of Republican-led attacks on trans rights targeting medical care, education, sports and beyond.

“Madness of Militarism”: Biden OKs Cluster Bombs for Ukraine Despite Risk of Civilian Casualties

The Biden administration is drawing outrage after announcing it will send cluster bombs to Ukraine as part of a new weapons package. When deployed, cluster munitions spread smaller “bomblets” across a wide area and regularly kill civilians, either on initial impact or from unexploded segments that go off later. Their use has been banned by 123 countries that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the United States, Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to the treaty.

Guatemalan Elite Tries to Overturn Democracy, But Anti-Corruption Candidate to Stay in Runoff Election

In Guatemala, election officials have rejected an attempt by the ruling business and political elite to overturn the results of last month’s first round of the presidential election. Sandra Torres, the former first lady, accused of corruption, and her allies challenged the results of June’s first-round elections, which saw the progressive, anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo win second place and force a runoff.

Bill McKibben: Climate Crisis Needs Urgent Action as Earth Records Hottest Temps Ever

This week unprecedented temperatures driven by climate change shattered heat records around the world. More records could be broken soon, as scientists say 2023 is set to be one of the warmest years in the history of planet Earth. “We can’t stop global warming at this point,” says Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. “All we can do is try to stop it short of the place where it cuts civilizations off at the knees.

Refugee Year

There was war somewhere on the news.
Every day. In America. On the border.War locked away in the darkened envelope
of our stirred, combusting minds.Winter arrived late with its diaphanous
wings & unsalted sidewalks bandagedwith new snow. Dish racks I arranged in
the pantry glistened with dry crusts wherebaked bread or croissants should have
been. In the week of power outages,in the year of hunger, all we had was love,
its fused & infinite grammar, its wet eyes& tenderness for days.

The Taylor Swift–Joan Didion Effect

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.Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer reveals what’s keeping them entertained.Today’s special guest is Atlantic staff writer Elaina Plott Calabro.