Featured
Biden Drops Out of Race, Scrambling the Campaign for the White House. By Peter Baker / NYT
President Biden abandoned his campaign for a second term under intense pressure from fellow Democrats on Sunday, upending the race for the White House in a dramatic last-minute bid to find a new candidate who can stop former President Donald J. Trump from returning to the White House.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” he said in a subsequent online post. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.” Read more
She’s ready, but is America prepared for President Kamala Harris? Phillip M. Bailey,Nick Penzenstadler ,Francesca Chambers, and Deborah Barfield Berry / USA Today
Kamala Harris has been on a yo-yo string with Democratic Party bigwigs since that cataclysmic debate performance catapulted her boss out of a sure 2024 nomination.
Allies disseminated a logic about why Harris would be the natural successor: She could seamlessly inherit the campaign’s massive war chest; her law enforcement background is best suited to prosecute the political case against Republican Donald Trump; polling shows she can win; and having been the nation’s first multiracial and woman VP could galvanize a new generation of younger progressives. Read more
Related: Here’s How Kamala Harris Performs In Polls Against Trump. By Sara Dorn and Molly Bohannon / Forbes
Related: Democratic consensus solidifies around Harris, should Biden step aside. By and
Related: How a Harris presidential campaign would transform the race. By Jenifer Rubin / Wash Post
Political / Social
This Crew Is Totally Beatable. By David Frum / The Atlantic
Democrats just need to believe they can do it.
At the climax of the Republican National Convention last night, former President Donald Trump’s nomination-acceptance speech was a disheveled mess, endless and boring. He spoke for 93 minutes, the longest such speech on record. The runner-up was another Trump speech, in 2016, but that earlier effort had a certain sinister energy to it. This one limped from dull to duller. Read more
Related: How Elon Musk Chose Trump. Theodore Schleifer and
JD Vance’s confusing evolution from liberal touchstone to Maga superstar. By Alice Herman and Stephen Starr / The Guardian
Trump’s vice-presidential pick seen as relatable for ties to rural white poor, but some say his book ‘sanitized’ his past
Once a critic of Trump’s, embraced by liberals who turned to his memoir for insights into the minds of the rural white poor, Vance has transformed into a Maga superstar, securing a seat in the US Senate with Trump’s endorsement and spending his first 18 months in office pursuing an isolationist foreign policy and fighting the culture war at home. Read more
Related: MAGAs Don’t Like J.D. Vance’s Wife Because She’s Indian. By Zack Linly / Newsone
Related: Indian Americans Become a Political Force, Just as Usha Vance’s Profile Rises. Amy Qin and
Bishop William Barber: Trump & Republicans Did Not Offer “Unity” at RNC, Only More Lies & Hate. By Nermeen Shaikh and Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
On the final night, Donald Trump’s invective-filled speech, coming just days after the attempt on his life, was promoted as an address about unity.
But Barber says it was only “a unity of rejection” on offer — rejecting the rights of women, immigrants, workers, poor people, disenfranchised voters and more. “They may have toned down their voices, but they did not tone down their extreme policies,” he says. Read more
Related: RNC Racism: Republicans’ Anti-Black Rhetoric Receipts Recapped. By Bruce C.T. Wright / Newsone
Related: Why the GOP’s Calls for Unity Feel Hollow to Many Black Americans. By Brandon Tensley / Capital One
The Big Lie About Immigrants You Heard at the RNC This Week. By
Over and over at this week’s Republican National Convention, politicians who know better — or who ought to — falsely said or implied that undocumented migrants and asylum seekers pose an unthinkable criminal threat to innocent, native-born Americans. The reality is the opposite: According to available data, American citizens who were born here are vastly more homicidal than immigrants, including undocumented immigrants. And the vast majority of drugs recovered at the southern border arrive here in the vehicles of American citizens. Read more
DEI is under attack but workplace commitments are not wavering. By Jessica Guynn / USA Today (Image NYT)
The “anti-woke” backlash has unnerved business leaders, but companies are not backtracking on their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, a new survey shows.
The vast majority – 96% – of corporate social impact professionals in 125 major companies say DEI commitments have either stayed the same (83%) or increased (13%), according to a new survey that the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals and YourCause from Blackbaud shared exclusively with USA TODAY. Read more
Related: Deere dials back DEI presence, cuts ‘socially motivated messages.’ By Taylor Telford / Wash Post
The Country’s Most Conservative Court Just Reinstated a Jim Crow-Era Voter Suppression Law. By Ari Berman / Mother Jones
Mississippi’s felon disenfranchisement law was specifically intended to preserve white supremacy.
The most conservative appellate court in the country on Thursday reinstated a Jim Crow-era felon disenfranchisement law in Mississippi that could prevent tens of thousands of people, who are disproportionately Black, from voting in November. The full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas and has become infamous for its fiercely right-wing opinions, upheld a state law dating back to 1890 that permanently prevents Mississippians from voting if they have been convicted of a list of 22 criminal categories, encompassing about 100 specific crimes, that include timber larceny, bigamy, and writing a bad check. Read more
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Who Had Pancreatic Cancer, Dead At 74. AP and HuffPost
The Texas Democrat helped lead federal efforts to protect women from domestic violence and recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday.
The Democrat had represented her Houston-based district and the nation’s fourth-largest city since 1995. She had previously had breast cancer and announced the pancreatic cancer diagnosis on June 2. “The road ahead will not be easy, but I stand in faith that God will strengthen me,” Jackson Lee said in a statement then. Read more
World News
The Trump-Vance ticket aligns the GOP with Europe’s far right. By Ishaan Tharoor / Wash Post
In all this, the Republicans under Trump have shed the trappings of a “mainstream” right-wing party for a platform more akin to the far-right parties in ascendance in Europe.
For years, experts in comparative politics have charted how the U.S. Republicans have drifted ideologically away from their traditional center-right peers across the pond and toward more extremist and illiberal factions. In 2024, the Republican Party shares far more in common, for example, with France’s National Rally — which is virulently anti-migrant, calls for forms of state welfarism and has documented links to the Kremlin — than it did with the French far right just a decade ago. Read more
Arab and Muslim media on the Trump shooting: Dark jokes, darker warnings. By Mohammad Ali Salih / Salon
Beyond the familiar conspiracy theories, many commenters in the Arab world fear a new U.S. assault on Islam
Editorials in many major newspapers in Arab and Muslim countries were relatively restrained in addressing the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, mostly focusing on the well-known problem of violence in America. Social media comments, however, were another story, often reflecting the widespread view of Trump as an enemy of Muslims — if not of Islam in general. Read more
In this city, people say Russia must defeat Ukraine and the West at any cost. By Francesca Ebel / Wash Post
The Post visited Kirov, in western Russia, where residents say President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is a fight for Russia’s survival against the U.S. and NATO.
In Kirov, a small city in the heart of western Russia, about 1,000 miles from the front lines in Ukraine, the war that initially few people wanted continues to fill graves in local cemeteries. But most residents now seem to agree with President Vladimir Putin that the bloodshed is necessary. Read more
Pressure Rises on Netanyahu Over Cease-Fire Deal Ahead of His Congress Speech.
The Israeli leader’s speech before a divided Congress next week is likely to be contentious, particularly if he does not close a deal with Hamas to end the war before he travels to Washington.
World leaders are pushing for a cease-fire agreement. Protesters are taking to the streets across Israel. And hostage families are pleading with their leader to just make a deal. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Republicans inch closer to seeing Trump as a literal god. By Joan McCarter / Daily Kos
Last month, the Supreme Court effectively declared Donald Trump would be king if he were reelected. Now the GOP is taking the next step: In the wake of this past Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump, the party is all but claiming he has a divine right to the position.
“I told [Trump] that last night. I said, ‘Sir, the hand of God is on you,’” Florida Rep. Byron Donalds said at a Milwaukee town hall on Tuesday. Read more
Related: Why the Christian Right Believes Donald Trump Is “Anointed by God.” By Brian Stelter / Vanity Fair
The Meaning of Prayer at a Political Convention. By Esau McCaulley / NYT
As an Anglican clergy member, I have prayed for political leaders as a regular feature of my life. Each Sunday, at the church I attend with my family, we have a moment set aside to remember those who have political power. These intercessions are not declarations of policy agreement. I have prayed publicly for George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Prayers at political conventions feel different. Mixed in with the cascade of praise for the candidate, prayers at these events can take on the feel of a religious veneer for certain policies. Read more
Texas’ Christian-influenced curriculum spurs concerns. By Jaden Edison / Texas Tribune
Andy Wine thinks most children can understand the Golden Rule. Talking over your peers is rude. Insulting others is mean. Don’t hurt people. In short, it’s common sense, Wine said. That’s why the 43-year-old parent of two, who is an atheist, finds it appalling that the Texas Education Agency wants to incentivize public schools to teach the Golden Rule as a core value in the Bible.
Religious and nonreligious groups have raised concerns like this since the TEA proposed a curriculum that would insert Bible teachings into K–5 reading and language arts lessons. They worry the increased emphasis on Christianity could lead non-Christian students to face bullying and isolation, undermine church-state separation and grant the state too much control over how children are taught about religion. Read more
Historical / Cultural
For Black people, there’s an important history of flight as fight. By Kellie Carter Jackson / CNN
From roughly 1910 to 1970, an estimated six million Black southerners left their homes to find new ones; Black folks moved en masse from rural to urban areas and left with their families, taking with them their labor, skills, genius, artistry and culture, writes Jackson.
In the Black experience, leaving is one of the most common forms of resistance to White supremacy. Where are we going? To Canada? Ghana? The Caribbean? Or a newfound favorite: Portugal. The underlying question: Where can Black people live freely? All throughout African American history, leaving has been a form of refusal — something Black people have done in response to White supremacy for centuries. Flight is one of the most common actions in the history of Black resistance. It can mean quitting a job or place. It can be short-term or permanent. Read more
The Navy exonerates 256 Black sailors unjustly punished over WWII explosion. By Ayana Archie / NPR
The U.S. Navy has exonerated 256 Black sailors who refused to go back to work after an explosion that killed hundreds of people in 1944, the military service announced Wednesday.
The blast that happened at the Port Chicago naval weapons station in California killed 320 people and injured 400 more. Mostly Black personnel and white officers were assigned to the base at the time, as Black enlistees were barred from almost all sea-bound jobs. White officers were given time off following the incident, while Black sailors were not. So, 258 Black sailors refused to go back to their work of ammunition handling “in the absence of clarity on the explosions or further safety training,” the Navy said. Read more
Tuskegee syphilis study whistleblower Peter Buxtun has died at age 86. By Mike Stobbe / ABC News
Peter Buxtun, the whistleblower who revealed that the U.S. government allowed hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama to go untreated for syphilis in what became known as the Tuskegee study, has died. He was 86.
Buxtun died May 18 of Alzheimer’s disease in Rocklin, California, according to his attorney, Minna Fernan. Buxtun is revered as a hero to public health scholars and ethicists for his role in bringing to light the most notorious medical research scandal in U.S. history. Documents that Buxtun provided to The Associated Press, and its subsequent investigation and reporting, led to a public outcry that ended the study in 1972. Read more
When Shirley Chisholm paid a visit to George Wallace. By Adam Nicholas Phillips / RNS
Visiting Wallace, perhaps the country’s most prominent white supremacist at the time, after an assassination attempt, the Black congresswoman showed our country that it always has the opportunity to be more than it is.
The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, Shirley Chisholm, an American hero, was the first Black woman elected to Congress and was herself running for the Democratic nomination, with the slogan “Unbought and Unbossed.” A self-declared “black-and-proud” woman, Chisholm ran a long-shot campaign that was not just an attempt to disrupt politics as usual, but a morally grounded effort by a woman of faith looking to find new ways to bring the country together amid crippling poverty, racism and a war in Vietnam increasingly seen as illegal. She couldn’t be more unlike George Wallace. Chisholm’s visit with Wallace is captured in this year’s Netflix movie “Shirley.” Read more
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Is in ‘Shock’ Over Finding Your Roots’ Emmy Nod: ‘I Thought I Was Hallucinating.’ By JP Mangakindan / People
His docuseries Finding Your Roots was nominated for its first-ever Emmy Award on July 17 for outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special.
While the popular PBS docuseries’ nomination is a huge surprise for its host, he understands why it’s now being recognized: the show speaks to a “need that our country has right now,” he says. “We have a twin message every week, a subliminal message: the first is that, despite all of our apparent differences — differences in race, gender, sexual preferences, color, ethnicity, point of origin — at the genome, we’re 99.9% the same,” the Harvard professor and historian explains. Read more
When Is a Stand-Up Special Like ‘The Wire’? When Ali Siddiq Is Onstage.
The comedian’s YouTube epic, “The Domino Effect,” is nervy humor, with both punches and punchlines that reflect his years in prison.
In “The Domino Effect,” a genre-defying autobiographical epic on YouTube, the comic Ali Siddiq begins one part by casually asking the audience a question: “Has anyone here been duct-taped and thrown in a trunk?” With cheerful charisma, Siddiq, 50, describes entering the drug trade as a boy, being shuttled through the justice system and spending six years behind bars. In between comic scenes and farcical act-outs, there are gun battles, a prison riot, drug deals gone wrong. Read more
Sports
USA squeaks by South Sudan, receives major wake-up call. By Jeff Zillgitt / USA Today
As exhibition games go, a U.S. loss to South Sudan in a men’s 5×5 2024 Paris Olympic tune-up game would’ve been a bad one. Not just bad. But embarrassing, too. The U.S. avoided that with a 101-100 victory against South Sudan Saturday in London.
But it was touch-and-go. South Sudan led by as many 16 points, had a 58-44 halftime lead and still owned a double-digit lead midway through the third quarter. South Sudan led 100-99 with 20 seconds to play and had a chance for a monumental upset on the game’s final shot. South Sudan gave the U.S. a game and a wake-up call. Read more
Simone Biles Rising review: Netflix’s new docuseries enters the Olympics megastar’s mind. By Rebecca Schuman / Slate
Just in time for the Olympics, it’s a moving deep dive into the megastar’s extremely public crisis.
It’s 30 minutes into the first episode of the new Netflix docuseries Simone Biles Rising, and the greatest gymnast in the history of the sport is showing us her favorite place to cry. In a guest room she seldom visits, wearing a black hoodie and jeans with a simple low ponytail—nary an elaborate updo or Swarovski crystal in sight—Biles opens what she calls her “forbidden Olympic closet.” Read more
Years into efforts to attract more Black players, MLB sees signs of hope. By Michael Lee / Wash Post
An exciting group of young players in the prospect ranks has baseball hopeful that its pipeline of Black talent is improving. Philadelphia Phillies prospect Justin Crawford is eager to make it to the majors.
Though he has speed to burn, Crawford isn’t in a hurry. The 20-year-old prospect in the Philadelphia Phillies’ farm system has learned that what he wants — to reach the majors like his father, four-time all-star outfielder Carl Crawford — requires patience. Nothing will happen before its time. Read more
Olympian Noah Lyles Wins 100-m in London. Paris Games Await. By AP and Time
Heading into the Paris Olympics, Noah Lyles has never been faster.
The American world champion warmed up for the Paris Games by setting a personal best in the 100 meters at Saturday’s Diamond League meet in London, clocking 9.81 seconds to beat a strong field in the last major meet before the Olympics. Read more
Joel Embiid Believes He Could Have Been the GOAT.
The Sixers have repeatedly fallen short in the playoffs, at times in heartbreaking fashion. Then there’s the churn: During his tenure, the team has seen coaches, star players and general managers come and go. And Embiid himself can’t seem to avoid injury. (Shortly after Embiid and I spoke, the 76ers did sign another star player, Paul George. So there’s reason to hope, Philly fans!) Read more
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