Today's Liberal News

Aftermath

Of what, you may ask—love affair, divorce, death, storm
illness, joy, betrayal, revelation, blessing?
In my courtyard, a heap of stuff blown from many directions—
wet socks, branch about to bloom, TV antenna
bent-over window screen, a sandbag without sand.
I could set up shop, sell broken merchandise
to the broken, sell wails and sobs to the grieving.

The International Criminal Court Shows Its Mettle

Passing judgment on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was never going to be simple for the International Criminal Court. Even harder than acting fairly and impartially would be appearing to have done so, in a conflict that stirs fierce passions the world over.
On top of that, equality before the law is a basic principle of justice, but until this point, the ICC has mainly prosecuted authoritarian and non-Western leaders.

Pakistani Forces in Islamabad Crush Protesters Demanding Freedom for Jailed Ex-PM Imran Khan

Security forces in Pakistan arrested over 1,000 supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan during a march on the capital of Islamabad. Protesters had vowed to stage a sit-in until Khan — who has been imprisoned since August 2023 on what are widely viewed as politically motivated charges — was released, but ended their efforts after six people were killed.

“Fragile” Ceasefire Begins in Lebanon After Israel Launched More Devastating Attacks

Nearly two months after Israel invaded Lebanon, a “fragile” ceasefire has been reached between Israel and Lebanon. Under the deal, Israel says it will withdraw troops from Lebanon’s south over a 60-day period, though Lebanese writer Lina Mounzer says “this is already being contradicted by the behavior and the directives of the Israeli army,” which continued to bomb Lebanese civilian areas through the waning hours of official hostilities.

What Comes Next for Air Travel

The list of air-travel fiascos this past year reads like a verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: A chunk of plane fell off mid-flight. Boeing workers went on strike. A CrowdStrike software issue grounded thousands of planes worldwide. A major airline merger was blocked. Passengers were terribly unruly.

The Road Dogs of the American West

Photographs by Bryan Schutmaat
Drive far enough into Texas from the Louisiana border, and you’ll see the ground dry, the earth crumble into dust. Eventually, the photographer Bryan Schutmaat told me, the strip malls fade into the rearview mirror, the landscape opens, and the American West begins.
Schutmaat has long been fascinated by the West; as he toured with punk bands in his teens and early 20s, he felt himself drawn to the region and its open space.

Kendrick Lamar Makes His Point Clearer

Mid is a perfect bit of new slang for a culture in which quantity is crushing quality, in which you can stream endlessly and feel nothing. What’s also fitting is that the word has become a favorite diss in the rap world, the musical genre that has helped pioneer what mediocrity means today. To be clear: Hip-hop is our era’s most dynamic art form.

My Home Is a Horror of Unfinished Tasks

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,
Unless there is money attached or a truly significant deadline (impending wedding, house sale, moving van arriving), I never seem to complete what I begin.