Today's Liberal News

New Zealand journalist becomes the first person with a Māori face tattoo to present primetime news

As 2021 comes to an end, we celebrate another first for representation—this time not in the U.S. but in New Zealand. A Māori journalist made history in New Zealand by becoming the first person with traditional facial markings to host a primetime news program on national television. Making headlines worldwide, Oriini Kaipara was the first person to have Indigenous markings on her face while reading Newshub Live 6 PM news bulletin in a prime spot on Christmas Day.

Late-night taco truck adventures pay off

It was after 9 PM on Isla Mujeres, a lovely little island in Mexico just off the edge of the Yucatan peninsula. I had been in-country for 24 hours. I had finished a dinner hours earlier of panuchos and taquitos but as a traveling woman with a ravenous appetite egged on by much mezcal, I accepted an invitation to search for good street food just before midnight.

Even My Business-School Students Have Doubts About Capitalism

During a lecture in my Modern Political Economy class this fall, I explained—as I have to many students over the course of four decades in academia—that capitalism’s adaptation to globalization and technological change had produced gains for all of society. I went on to say that capitalism has been an engine of wealth creation and that corporations seeking to maximize their long-term shareholder value had made the whole economy more efficient.

Thinking of My Wife as a Child by the Sea, While We Clean Mussels Together

Before prising keel worms off the backs of mussels,
we have to tap them with a knife, when good sense, fear,
life, shuts their lips. I do chop the lemongrass. I do close
the lid. Their bodies inside are soft. It hurts me to do it,
but not for long. We bring the shell-clatter after to the loch
with our dog and son. I love this quiet house by the water
and lighting the fire and imagining my wife as a child
throwing a sweater over her pajamas to cycle with no hands
by the sea.

Trump Is Making the Midterms a Referendum on Himself

When the 2022 midterm elections are appraised less than a year from now, the Washington commentariat will in all likelihood render them to have been a devastating blow to Joe Biden’s presidency.Barring a historic anomaly, Democrats will have lost at least one chamber of Congress, Biden’s remaining legislative goals will be placed on life support, and the growing anguish over the party’s 2024 presidential nominee will transform into a panic.

The Atlantic Daily: What Covid Could Look Like One Year From Now

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.The United States is logging record-setting numbers of coronavirus cases in the final week of 2021. The country is now averaging more than 300,000 new cases per day as it prepares to enter a third calendar year spent battling the pandemic.

The Books Briefing: 5 Short Stories to Read This Weekend

Editor’s note: This week’s newsletter is a rerun.
We’ll be back with a fresh newsletter next week.
I often think of fiction as fact’s partner in the pursuit of truth. At its best, the genre is capable of rendering the worlds we’re unable to imagine, and also of revealing the ones hidden around us. Last year, The Atlantic recommitted itself to publishing fiction with greater frequency.

Arundhati Roy on the Media, Vaccine Inequity, Authoritarianism in India & Challenging U.S. Wars

We go to New Delhi, India, to speak with acclaimed Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy about the pandemic, U.S. militarism and the state of journalism. Roy first appeared on Democracy Now! after receiving widespread backlash for speaking out against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. At the time, her emphatic antiwar stance clashed with the rising tides of patriotism and calls for war after 9/11. “Now the same media is saying what we were saying 20 years ago,” says Roy.

Watch: Bigg’s killer whales hunting seals along rocky Salish Sea coastline

There are two distinct populations of killer whales in the Salish Sea. The most famous are the so-called Southern Resident killer whales, an endangered clan currently down to 73 members. But there’s an entirely different orca ecotype—who have not had any kind of genetic interaction, according to scientists, for at least 300,000 years and perhaps longer, with the SRKWs—who are known as “transient” orcas, scientifically known as “Bigg’s” whales.