Today's Liberal News

Playwright Gillian Slovo: I Grew Up in Apartheid South Africa. I Saw the Same Thing in Palestine

Gaza solidarity encampments, which started on U.S. college campuses, have now spread worldwide as students call on their educational institutions to divest from companies profiting from Israeli apartheid and occupation. The uprising echoes the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s, when many in civil society called for divestment from companies that profited from South Africa’s system of racial domination.

Senate Candidate Larry Hamm on ’70s Anti-Apartheid Protests at Princeton and Voting “Uncommitted” in NJ

Larry Hamm is chair of the People’s Organization for Progress and a Princeton alumnus who took part in protests at the school in the 1970s to call for divestment from apartheid South Africa. He visited the Princeton student encampment earlier this week and says he is “really proud of the students” for their protest against the war in Gaza. Hamm, who is running in the Democratic primary for the U.S.

“We Feel Unheard”: Hunger-Striking Princeton Students Vow to Fast Until Divestment Demands Are Met

Over a dozen students at Princeton University have been on hunger strike for the past week as part of a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and calling on the university to disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel, among other demands. The hunger strikers are also calling for all charges to be dropped against a number of students arrested on campus in late April as part of the encampment.

12 Arrested Outside NYC’s New School as First Faculty-Led Gaza Solidarity Encampment Continues

​​The first faculty-led Gaza solidarity encampment in the United States was launched Wednesday at The New School in New York City, where nearly two dozen professors and lecturers pitched tents inside the lobby of the university’s main building on Fifth Avenue. The encampment is named after the Palestinian writer, poet and professor Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in December.

A Gross and Fabulous Mother’s Day, Courtesy of SNL

When Maya Rudolph returned to her old stomping grounds to host Saturday Night Live this weekend, the cast members Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman popped in during her monologue to declare her “mother”—and not only because she has four children. They also meant it in the slang sense of the word, which was derived from queer ballroom culture.

A Show That Breaks the Curse of ‘Mid TV’

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 or editor reveals what’s keeping them entertained. Today’s special guest is Caroline Mimbs Nyce, a staff writer who used to be the lead writer of The Daily.

The Awfulness of War Can’t Be Avoided

In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part II, the Earl of Warwick warns the king of an impending revolt, which is one of those
main chance of things
As yet not come to life, who in their seeds
And weak beginning lie intreasured
The ailing but canny king rises to the occasion:
Are these things then necessities?
Then let us meet them like necessities.
A brutal war ensues, in which Henry saves his kingdom.

Tapering

1.
I’m tapering
the doctor says––
It might feel
like you can hear
your eyes moving––
space racing
from the back
of your skull
to the front––
Mine goes a little
cold sometimes––
I don’t know
how else
to describe it––
Tall black candles––
2.
I’m tapering
off
because they
make me
very sick––
the morning
and evening
tablets I take
to stave off
the chill
of consciousness––
Two poles––
all stomach
or all mind––
Tall black candles––
3.

Playwright Gillian Slovo: I Grew Up in Apartheid South Africa. I Saw the Same Thing in Palestine

Gaza solidarity encampments, which started on U.S. college campuses, have now spread worldwide as students call on their educational institutions to divest from companies profiting from Israeli apartheid and occupation. The uprising echoes the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s, when many in civil society called for divestment from companies that profited from South Africa’s system of racial domination.

Senate Candidate Larry Hamm on ’70s Anti-Apartheid Protests at Princeton and Voting “Uncommitted” in NJ

Larry Hamm is chair of the People’s Organization for Progress and a Princeton alumnus who took part in protests at the school in the 1970s to call for divestment from apartheid South Africa. He visited the Princeton student encampment earlier this week and says he is “really proud of the students” for their protest against the war in Gaza. Hamm, who is running in the Democratic primary for the U.S.

“We Feel Unheard”: Hunger-Striking Princeton Students Vow to Fast Until Divestment Demands Are Met

Over a dozen students at Princeton University have been on hunger strike for the past week as part of a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and calling on the university to disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel, among other demands. The hunger strikers are also calling for all charges to be dropped against a number of students arrested on campus in late April as part of the encampment.

12 Arrested Outside NYC’s New School as First Faculty-Led Gaza Solidarity Encampment Continues

​​The first faculty-led Gaza solidarity encampment in the United States was launched Wednesday at The New School in New York City, where nearly two dozen professors and lecturers pitched tents inside the lobby of the university’s main building on Fifth Avenue. The encampment is named after the Palestinian writer, poet and professor Refaat Alareer, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in December.

A Strange Week in Politics

Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings or watch full episodes here.  
This week, a range of political headlines continue to raise questions about the looming presidential election. The adult-film star Stormy Daniels took the stand in the third week of former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial.

What Kids Can Bring to Conversations

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
“During most of my early adulthood, philosophy had little appeal to me,” Elissa Strauss wrote in 2022. “As long as I treated people mostly kindly, what did it matter what I thought about right and wrong, or the nature of knowledge or the universe?”
“Until, of course, I had my first child.

Asteroids Could Fuel the Clean-Energy Transition

This article was originally published by Undark Magazine.
In April 2023, a satellite the size of a microwave launched into space. Its goal: to get ready to mine asteroids. Although the mission, backed by a company called AstroForge, ran into problems, it’s part of a new wave of activity by would-be asteroid miners hoping to cash in on cosmic resources.

The Sad Fate of the Sports Parent

A true sports parent dies twice. There’s the death that awaits us all at the end of a long or short life, the result of illness, misadventure, fire, falling object, hydroplaning car, or derailing train. But there is also the death that comes in the midst of life, the purgatorial purposelessness that follows the final season on the sidelines or in the bleachers, when your sports kid hangs up their skates, cleats, or spikes after that last game.