Today's Liberal News

Why Is Brazil Joining OPEC+ Oil Cartel, If Lula Is Committed to Phasing Out Fossil Fuels?

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is calling for phasing out fossil fuels but has alarmed many climate activists as Brazil moves to join the oil producer alliance OPEC+ as an observer state. Paula Vargas, director of the Brazil program at Amazon Watch, lays out Brazil’s environmental policy under Lula and Jair Bolsonaro’s legacy of impunity for those attacking environmental defenders.

COP28 Activists Say Palestine Solidarity Protests Calling for Ceasefire Face Severe Restrictions

At COP28 in Dubai, protests in solidarity with Palestine have faced severe restrictions. Asad Rehman, the lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, joined with human rights groups at an unofficial media briefing to explain how climate summit officials have threatened to debadge participants for even wearing Palestinian colors or sporting visual depictions calling for a ceasefire. “This is probably the most restrictive we’ve seen,” Rehman said.

“We Want Freedom”: Refaat Alareer, Gaza Scholar & Activist Killed by Israeli Strike, in His Own Words

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza has killed the acclaimed Palestinian academic and activist Refaat Alareer, along with his brother, his sister and her four children. Alareer was just 44 years old. For more than 16 years, he worked as a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza and authored dozens of stories and poems about life under Israeli occupation in Gaza. “Whether it is my kids or any Palestinian kid or any Palestinian, no one is safe. No place is safe.

The Eerie Intensity of Adam Driver on Saturday Night Live

When this week’s Saturday Night Live host, Adam Driver, explained in his opening monologue that he had a “very deep and personal relationship with Santa,” it was pretty obvious that whatever was to follow wasn’t going to be your typical holiday cheer.The Oscar-nominated actor sat down at a piano, demonstrated that he really could play it, and then started barking his wish list to the jolly man in the North Pole.

Weather

I like your eyes. Their startling weather
like the bract of the bougainvillea, a leaf
turned suddenly dawn, peach
or cloud, drawn out from the sun
and dark water. No. Your eyes are arid
and say nothing. I am looking at
you. I don’t know what I’m thinking.
You look at me—what, you say; nothing
I say. No. Tell me something.

Catch Up on a Year of Culture

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.Culture has a way of defining a year for even the under-rock dwellers among us: A good movie, TV show, book, or album can shape our conversations, our experiences, and even the way we think.

The Two Republican Theories for Beating Trump

The latest GOP presidential debate demonstrated again that Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are pursuing utterly inimical strategies for catching the front-runner, Donald Trump.The debate, on Wednesday evening, also showed why neither approach looks remotely sufficient to dislodge Trump from his commanding position in the race.DeSantis delivered a stronger overall debate performance than Haley.

Modern Britain Is a Scene From Slow Horses

“No one enters Slough House by the front door,” the novelist Mick Herron writes in Dead Lions, the second book in his series about an “administrative oubliette” for useless spies exiled by MI5, Britain’s domestic-intelligence agency. “Instead, via a shabby alleyway, its inmates let themselves into a grubby yard with mildewed walls, and through a door that requires a sharp kick most mornings, when damp or cold or heat have warped it.