The Brazilian government has created 10 new Indigenous territories following pressure and protests at Cop30.

Opening the climate summit last week, President Lula da Silva said Cop30 would be “inspired by Indigenous peoples and traditional communities”. But while this year’s edition welcomed the largest Indigenous delegation in the summit’s history, talks have been disrupted by Indigenous-led protesters who say more needs to be done to protect their culture and environment.

What did the commentators say?
The summit in Belém, situated at the mouth of the Amazon River system, marks an “unprecedented effort to elevate Indigenous voices”, said Danilo Urzedo, Oliver Tester and Stephen van Leeuwen on The Conversation. Around 1,000 Indigenous representatives were invited to take part, with a further 2,000 able to access spaces for activists and the public. 

But as talks got under way last Tuesday, Indigenous-led protesters clashed with security guards as they attempted to enter the conference venue; “highlighting tensions” around the Brazilian government’s claim that the event was “open to Indigenous voices”, said Al Jazeera. Three days later, a peaceful protest prevented delegates from entering the venue for several hours.
 
Of particular concern is Cop30’s “emphasis on climate finance” rather than a total ban on disruptive activities such as mining, logging and oil drilling in the Amazon basin. “We can’t eat money,” said one community leader.

But the fact that protests could even take place sets “democratic” Brazil apart from previous “autocratic” Cop hosts such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan, who have shown “little tolerance for demonstrations”, said Politico.

What next?
As Cop30 draws to a close, the next challenge is tackling the “logistical and bureaucratic hurdles” in the “arduous” process of officially establishing the 10 new Indigenous territories, said The New York Times. Before Lula’s announcement on Monday, there were “107 Indigenous land demarcation processes awaiting a final government decision”.

Brazil has also established a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, headed by Sônia Guajajara, who “is widely recognised for her leadership and activism in defending Indigenous rights”, said Euronews.

Today is the 50th anniversary of Francisco Franco’s death – and as revisionist takes on the dictator’s regime spread on social media, the Spanish government is seeking to remind the country’s young people of the reality of fascism.

Nearly one in four Spaniards between the ages of 18 and 26 would prefer an authoritarian government to a democratic one, according to an El País/Cadena SER poll.

‘Scant knowledge’
The death of Franco, an ally of Hitler and Mussolini, on 20 November 1975 ended 39 years of dictatorship. But the “deeds and legacy of the man whose military coup ushered in” a regime “built around the authoritarian ideology of National Catholicism” still “haunt, divide and confuse” Spain, said The Guardian. With the far-right “once more on the march”, this year’s commemorative events are targeted at younger voters with “no memory – and scant knowledge – of the dictatorship”.

“Historical revisionism and justification” of Franco’s regime have “crept into the generation that has grown up in freedom”, said El País, and there is a growing and vocal cohort of youthful Franco apologists on social media.

Pseudo-nostalgia
 “AI-generated clips” of Franco “railing against modern ills” are circulating online, said Reuters, while nightclubs play “techno remixes of Spain’s fascist-era anthem”. Teachers talk of students who express a “pseudo-nostalgic admiration” for a dictatorship “about whose realities they know next to nothing”, said The Guardian. False narratives about, for example, life being more affordable under Franco are gaining traction partly because, after the collapse of fascism, Spain embraced a “tacit social contract”, known as the “pact of forgetting” to enable the country to move on.

A 2022 education law made it mandatory to teach students about the “fight for democratic values and freedoms”, said El País. But how this is done “often depends on the will of the educational centres, and the teachers themselves”. Education is devolved to the country’s 17 autonomous regions, “of which 11 are currently governed by the main opposition Popular Party”, which views this teaching as “indoctrination”.

Ducks swim amid falling snow at Lockwood Beck in Lingdale, North Yorkshire. The Met Office has issued amber and yellow weather warnings for snow and ice across the UK as the cold snap takes hold.

Ian Forsyth / Getty Images

A festive theatre outing is a great way to get in the mood for Christmas. Here are some of the best shows being staged around the UK this year:

Sherlock Holmes and the 12 Days of Christmas, Birmingham
Sherlock and Watson (played by show writers Humphrey Ker and David Reed) face “a seasonal challenge” to find gold rings and save French hens in a comedy whodunnit with “a sprinkling of original songs” by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, said Clive Davis in The Times.

The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker, London
“The Nutcracker” (pictured above) returns to The Royal Ballet in a classic staging by choreographer Peter Wright. Highlights include Act One’s transformation scene, which leaves “little ones wide-eyed in wonder”, said Dan Cavendish in The Telegraph, and a magnificent house orchestra that makes Tchaikovsky’s “magical score fly”. 

Gawain and The Green Knight, London
Not all Christmas shows are “just for kids”, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out. “Gawain and The Green Knight” reframes the medieval romance as a comedy set at an office Christmas party for Camelot Corp, with the titular Gawain as a “jobsworth middle manager” determined to wow his boss, Arthur. 

A Christmas Carol, Belfast
Back after an “acclaimed run” last year, Marie Jones’ imaginative adaptation of the classic Dickens tale is set in Belfast and “staged as a play within a play” performed by working-class actors who know all about poverty and exploitation, said Mark Fisher in The Guardian. 

Who are you calling ‘piggy’, Mr President?
Victoria Richards in The Independent
Donald Trump telling a female reporter to be “quiet, piggy” is just the latest in his “litany of sexist threats, insults and diminishing comments which go back as far as his hairline”, writes Victoria Richards. Despite the president’s “overt” misogyny, he’s been “frustratingly impervious”. But “women are tired of this nonsense, now”, and so is Maga. “Wouldn’t it be a great twist” if, “after all the slurs”, it’s “women who bring him down?”

The panic over a male crisis in Britain is overblown
Bagehot in The Economist
Concerns about men “are in season”, writes Bagehot. That boys perform worse than girls academically and go on to “have shorter lives” is “undeniable”. But, despite “panicked editorials”, it’s a “myth” that “young British men are drifting inexorably right”. True, “an electorate of men who skipped university would give” Reform “a North Korean majority”, but many young women without degrees would vote for Reform, too. “Worries about men are often worries about class with a Movember moustache.”

By George – actors ageing naturally are now ‘brave’
Janice Turner in The Times
He’s “still dashing” but George Clooney “looks all of his 64 years,” writes Janice Turner, and in Hollywood, “that counts as brave”. What a shame that male stars “now feel the same obligation as leading ladies to mess with their faces”, walking the red carpet with “chipmunk cheek fillers and pop-eyed blepharoplasties”. Someone should tell them “how unattractive insecurity and vanity are in a man”. Clooney once had an eye-lift, but there’s “valour in his new letting go”.