Today's Liberal News

Behind the Brain Rot

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The image is black-and-white, lending it an air of “historical artifact”: A modern-day Donald Trump standing next to Elvis Presley. The president-elect posted the picture on Truth Social last night. Presley is strumming a guitar; Trump is idling in the frame.

South Korea’s Warning for Washington

A right-wing wannabe authoritarian president—a leader who attacks the press, is accused of abusing power for personal gain, uses his power to block investigations into his family’s potential corruption, hopes to stay in office to avoid heading to prison, and only seems to have concepts of a plan to address his nation’s inflation and health care—declared martial law earlier today.

Trumpists Don’t Seem to Mind Claims of Sexual Assault

Donald Trump is most likely not trying to intentionally assemble a Cabinet chock-full of people accused either of sexual assault or of enabling it, but if he were, he’d be killing it.
Former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who has been accused of “sexual encounters” with a minor and paying women for sex, withdrew his nomination for attorney general last month.

Since the Election, I Fear Men

Editor’s Note: Is anything ailing, torturing, or nagging at you? Are you beset by existential worries? Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles readers’ questions. Tell him about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems at dearjames@theatlantic.com.
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Dear James,
I’ve never been an anxious person. However, since the election, I’ve been experiencing what I imagine are anxiety attacks.

Day 3 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar

ESA / Hubble & NASA, L. Kelsey
Day 3 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: The Hubble Space Telescope brings us this nearly edge-on view of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4753. Lenticular galaxies have an elliptical shape and ill-defined spiral arms. NGC 4753 sits about 60 million light-years from Earth, and is believed to have merged with a nearby dwarf galaxy about 1.3 billion years ago, creating the distinctive wavy dust lanes around its nucleus.

Live Report: Activists Occupy Canadian Parliament Building to Protest Gaza War & Arming of Israel

“Canada needs to stop arming Israel and implement an immediate arms embargo.” In Ottawa, over 100 Jewish activists began a sit-in inside a Canadian parliamentary building Tuesday to demand Canada stop arming Israel. Rachel Small, a member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition and a member of the sit-in, says that the Canadian government’s claims that it is halting arms shipments to Israel are obfuscating the fact that Canadian weapons are still being transported via the United States.

Biden in Angola: U.S. Competes with China for Influence in Africa Amid Fight for Key Resources

President Biden is in Angola today in his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president and as the first U.S. president to visit the former Portuguese colony. The U.S. is attempting to transform its relationship with Angola, still marked by the legacy of the Cold War, in order to compete with China’s growing influence, particularly over access to African resources. Biden is expected to promote a U.S.-funded multibillion-dollar railway project connecting Angola to Central Africa.