Today's Liberal News

Every App Wants to Be a Shopping App

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.Social-media platforms’ attempts to break into commerce have largely flopped.

Libya’s Unnatural Disaster

Footage and eyewitness accounts have conveyed harrowing scenes from the storm-struck Libyan town of Derna: overflowing morgues and mass burials, rescuers digging through mud with their bare hands to recover bodies, a corpse hanging from a streetlight, the cries of trapped children.

You’ve Never Seen a Star Like This

From our perspective down here, on the surface of our planet, the stars are tiny, gleaming specks in an inky-dark universe. Occasionally they appear to twinkle, when the air in our atmosphere bends the incoming light. Through telescopes, they are balls of light, their glow distorted by the lens. And up close, the best star in the universe—our sun—is an orangey sphere of flame.But stars can be so much more than that, as telescopes, especially the very good ones, can reveal.

The Brain of a Man Who Is Always Thinking About Ancient Rome

Do you find yourself constantly closing your eyes and seeing marble? Do thoughts of Caesar and chariot races and a nascent republic punctuate your daily goings?All roads lead to Rome—and apparently so do all male thoughts. Across social media, women have been encouraged to ask the men in their life how often they think about the Roman empire and to record the answer.

400 Climate Scientists Endorse Call to Halt Fossil Fuels Ahead of Major NYC Climate March

Ahead of a March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on Sunday, some 400 scientists endorsed the demands of the march in an open letter to President Biden, blasting him for claiming he would “listen to the science” while his policies “fail to align with what the science tells us must happen to avert calamity.” We speak with Rose Abramoff, an Earth scientist and one of the signatories, who was arrested last week blocking construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

UAW on Strike: In Historic Move, Auto Workers Target All Big Three Automakers at Once

For the first time in history, the United Auto Workers has launched a strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler — all at once. UAW President Shawn Fein announced targeted strikes at three facilities: a General Motors plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Stellantis complex in Toledo, Ohio; and a Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan.

“Complicit”: Columbia U. Shielded Predator OB-GYN Robert Hadden for Decades as He Assaulted Hundreds

We look at how Columbia University ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected obstetrician Robert Hadden while he preyed on hundreds of his patients for more than two decades, as detailed in a new investigation from ProPublica and New York magazine. Hadden was sentenced in July to 20 years in federal prison for sexually abusing his patients, but survivors say no one has been held accountable at Columbia, and are still demanding justice.

“A Calamity of Epic Proportions”: Death Toll from Libyan Floods Tops 6,000 in Latest Climate Disaster

We get an update from Libya, where at least 6,000 are feared dead after a catastrophic cyclone hit the eastern city of Derna, causing two dams to burst and flooding whole sections of the city. Storm victims are being buried in mass graves as hope is dwindling for those who have been unable to locate friends and family members. Libya’s infrastructure has crumbled over years of civil war, NATO intervention and political instability; Derna’s dams have not been maintained since 2002.