Featured
History teaches us that authoritarians use any excuse to seize power. By Judith Levine / The Guardian
Nazis used the 1933 Reichstag blaze to justify snuffing out civil liberties. In the US, the calls for a crackdown have already begun
On the night of 27 February 1933, six days before national elections, the German Reichstag was set on fire. Firefighters and police discovered a Dutch communist named Marinus van der Lubbe at the scene, who confessed to being the arsonist. The Nazi Reichstag president, Hermann Göring, soon arrived, followed by the future propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler, who had been dining together. Two competing, still unresolved, conspiracy theories would circulate about the real culprit: the Nazis, with van der Lubbe as front; or a communist cabal. But the three men had no doubts. Göring pronounced the crime a communist plot. Hitler called it “a God-given signal”, adding: “If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the communists, then we must crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist.”
On 10 September 2025, within minutes of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, before a suspect or a motive had been identified, a cacophony of voices – from neo-Nazi influencers to Republican members of Congress – were blaming the left for the murder of the hugely effective far-right political organizer. Read more
Related: The Right’s Scary Quick Campaign to Exploit Charlie Kirk’s Death. By Aaron Regunberg / TNR
Related: Seeing Enemies Everywhere. By Jonathan Blitzer / The New Yorker
Political / Social
Confronting Charlie Kirk’s Legacy. By Caitlin Scialla / The Progressive Magazine
In the aftermath of Kirk’s killing, I have been dismayed, although not entirely surprised, to see both elected officials and mainstream media figures—including anti-MAGA liberals—describe him as a “charismatic right-wing activist,” and Turning Point as a platform that fostered productive discourse across the political spectrum. His murder is utterly contemptible, regardless of the views he espoused.
But these characterizations of Kirk and his organization are simply inaccurate. Kirk was an openly racist Christian nationalist who lamented the passage of the Civil Rights Act; who labeled LGBTQ+ identity a “social contagion”; who called on women to “submit to your husband”; who said it “doesn’t feel right” for major Western cities to have Muslim mayors; who called for tear gas and “lethal force” to be used against immigrants; and who said that gun deaths were “worth it” to protect the Second Amendment. Read more
Related: Political Violence Isn’t New. But Something About This Moment Is. Jia Lynn Yang / NYT
The Trump Administration’s Chilling Efforts to Punish Free Speech. The Editorial Board / NYT
A founding principle of the United States, enshrined in the Constitution’s opening amendment, is that our republic depends on citizens’ freedom to disagree with one another. They need to be able to do so intensely, on matters of life and death, including war and divisive modern issues like abortion, gun safety and health insurance.
There are limits to free speech, yes, but they involve edge cases, like falsely shouting “Fire!” in a theater or inciting an imminent act of violence. If the American ideal of freedom means anything, it is that Americans can engage in an extremely wide range of political speech, including the tasteless and the offensive. Read more
Related: What Jimmy Kimmel’s Suspension Says About Free Speech. Adam B. Kushner / NYT
Related: Brendan Carr defended free speech — until he went after Jimmy Kimmel. By Austin Sarat / Salon
Related: Silencing Kimmel is just the beginning — here’s what’s coming next. By Thom Hartman / MSN
What is antifa? Trump wants group designated as a terrorist organization. By Josh Meyer / USA Today
President Donald Trump says he is “designating” antifa as a major terrorist organization following the Sept. 10 slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
But what is the anti-fascist movement, known collectively as antifa? And what does Trump designating a terrorist organization mean? Authorities have not confirmed any direct links between Kirk’s accused killer, Tyler James Robinson, and antifa, which is more of a broad political concept than an actual organization with members, leadership or a headquarters that can be targeted, experts say. What is antifa? According to the Congressional Research Service, “antifa” refers to individuals who “view themselves as part of a protest tradition that arcs back to opposition groups in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy prior to World War II.” Read more
The data doesn’t back up Trump’s claims that the left is more violent. By Aaron Blake / CNN
President Donald Trump has justified his ramped up threats against the American political left by citing its supposed unusually violent nature.
How do the right and left compare when it comes to 1) perpetrating violence and 2) their support for it? The data, save for a few polls cherry-picked by the right, doesn’t generally back up Trump’s claims that this is a bigger problem on the left. In fact, it usually shows the opposite. Read more
Related: The MAGA Movement Is Not a Debating Society. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
Related: Remember This Week—It’s the Week America Became a Different Place. By Michael Tomasky / TNR
Eric Adams, Donald Trump and the Case That Broke American Justice.
The indictment, unsealed by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York on Sept. 26, 2024, accused Mr. Adams of defrauding the city, accepting illicit donations and taking bribes from the Turkish government.
Over the past few decades, courts and legislators have made it harder to fight dirty money and dirty deals. Dropping the case against Mr. Adams advanced that process dramatically. A great many observers say it was designed to soften New York City up for Mr. Trump’s sweeping deportation raids, and to turn the mayor into a puppet on the president’s string. That would mean that in that one deal, Mr. Trump’s corruption enabled Mr. Adams’s and Mr. Adams’s corruption enabled Mr. Trump’s. Read more
Related: U.S. attorney resigns under pressure from Trump to charge N.Y. AG Letitia James. By AP and NPR
Trump’s ICE Raids Stir Fear in Black Chicago Neighborhoods. By
Nearly 70,000 immigrants from African countries live in the city, making up 5.2% of the population, according to 2023 U.S. Census data.
Many Black immigrants in the Chicago metro area have settled in majority-Black neighborhoods where earlier generations of their families already live — including Evanston and Rogers Park on the North Side, and Woodlawn and South Shore on the South Side. There are 69,484 Black immigrants in the Chicago metro area originally from a country in Africa, making up 5.2% of the city’s population, according to an American Community Survey analysis of the 2023 Census. Read more
Duffy warns Gov. Moore to avoid ‘DEI contracting’ in Key Bridge project. By Katie Shepherd / Wash Post
Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy raised concerns over what he called “DEI contracting practices” in the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in a letter to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Thursday.
Duffy raised concerns about a federal program called the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, or DBE, which was designed to help small businesses owned by “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.”Duffy said the Transportation Department has decided that the race- and sex-based criteria outlined in the DBE program do not align with the agency’s principles and said DOT has asked a federal district court to declare the program’s eligibility requirements unconstitutional. Read more
Education
Family of Black student found hanging from tree on Mississippi campus seeks independent autopsy. By
The family of a 21-year-old Black student who was found hanging from a tree on a university campus in Mississippi is demanding answers after his death was ruled a suicide by the state medical examiner.
The body of Demartravion “Trey” Reed was found on Delta State University’s campus in Cleveland by police on Monday. His death sparked outrage and allegations about the manner of his death circulated online, despite officials saying there was no evidence of foul play. Read more
Related: Colin Kaepernick initiative to cover independent autopsy for Trey Reed. By Tyler Dragon / USA Today
Antisemitism on campus is a real problem − but headlines and government-proposed solutions don’t match the experience of most Jewish students. By Graham Wright / The Conversation
Our findings show antisemitic ideas are not necessarily widespread among university students or faculty in the U.S. But that doesn’t mean antisemitism is not a serious problem, since just a few students or faculty members with extreme views can shape an entire campus’s climate.
In the spring of 2025, we conducted a survey of over 2,000 faculty members at 146 research-intensive universities, often called R1. Here are some of our most important findings. Read more
Trump admin pushes Chicago Public Schools to abolish ‘Black Student Success Plan.’ By Joshua Q. Nelson / Fox News
Linda McMahon threatens to pull $15M in federal grants over Black Student Success Plan and transgender guidelines
The Department of Education called out other Magnet Schools in New York City and Fairfax Public Schools (Va.) for allegedly disobeying federal law. “Protecting students’ civil rights is non-negotiable. @USEdGov will not certify that Magnet Schools in New York City, Chicago, & Fairfax Public Schools are following the law when they are clearly not,” McMahon posted on X. Read more
Harvard University Deads Minority Recruitment Amid Targets On Race Admissions. By Mitti Hicks / Black Enterprise
Data shows enrollment for Black and Latino students has decreased significantly
For the last 50 years, Harvard University’s Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program has encouraged minority high school students to apply. But as the Trump administration pressures higher education institutions to eliminate race in admissions and scholarships, Harvard quietly ended its minority recruitment program. Read more
We Can’t Let White Nationalism Dictate What Is Taught and Learned in Classrooms. By George Yancey / Truthout
Curricula that challenge oppression are being shut down. How do we resist?
Education in the U.S. is in danger of becoming a site where white nationalism exclusively dictates what is taught and learned. In the past, Donald Trump has decried discussions in U.S. schools about systemic racism as a “twisted web of lies” and even “a form of child abuse.” Now, in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the far right is weaponizing the killing to push for alarming new infringements on free speech — including against professors and K-12 teachers. Read more
HBCU receives record-setting $130 million gift. By Steven J. Gaither / HBCU Gameday
Huston-Tillotson University has announced a historic milestone with the receipt of a $150 million donation from the Moody Foundation, the largest single gift ever made to a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the United States. The announcement was delivered during the university’s annual President’s Fall Opening Convocation, marking a transformative moment in the 150-year history of Austin’s first institution of higher education.
President and CEO Dr. Melva K. Wallace described the magnitude of the gift in deeply personal terms. “This gift is a testament to faith, prayer, and the genuine belief in the goodness of others,” she said. “I am forever grateful to the Moody Foundation trustees Ross Moody, Elle Moody, and Francie Moody-Dahlberg. Their donation will completely transform Huston-Tillotson, as well as the city of Austin, and set us up for success for another 150 years.”
World
Britain, Australia and Canada Recognize a Palestinian State. Mark Landler / NYT
The announcements came on the eve of the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly, ramping up pressure on Israel and putting three allies at odds with the Trump administration.
The concerted action, across three continents, will deepen the diplomatic isolation of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. But so far, moves to recognize a Palestinian state have not curbed Israel’s military campaign against Hamas, which has killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza and left much of the enclave in ruins. Read more
Israeli Far-Right Minister Smotrich Calls Gaza Strip a “Real Estate Bonanza.” By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
Israel’s far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday called the Gaza Strip a “real estate bonanza” and said that “a business plan is on President Trump’s table.” He also added, “We’ve done the demolition phase. Now we need to build.”
Israeli forces continue to advance deeper into Gaza City, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians onto coastal roads away from the city center. Malnourished children and critically ill patients are among those displaced and ordered to walk south as Israel seeks to seize Gaza City. Read more
Related: Battered but Undefeated, Hamas Remains a Fighting Force in Gaza. Adam Rasgon / NYT
Trump brings the war on terrorism to the Caribbean. Editorial Board / Wash Post
The military blows up another Venezuelan boat without congressional authorization.
Trump might have good arguments for the growing U.S. military presence around Venezuela, but the administration isn’t explaining why force is necessary, what the objectives are or when it will end. Welcome to the war on terrorism 2.0. Read more
Trump’s Most Lethal Policy. By Nicholas Kristof / NYT
The Trump administration has claimed that no one has died because of its cuts to humanitarian aid, and it is now trying to cancel an additional $4.9 billion in aid that Congress already approved.
Yet what I find here in desperate villages in southwestern Uganda is that not only are aid cuts killing children every day, but that the death toll is accelerating. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
The bruise on America’s soul: Moral injury in the age of Trump. By Michael Bader / Salon
Our shared trauma is not imaginary. The Trump regime’s cruelty is affecting all of us — but there’s hope
So what do I mean by moral injury? This kind of suffering is real and has been repeatedly documented in medical literature. Moral injury has been described at times as “a betrayal of what’s right” or a “bruise on the soul.” Just as physical injuries have complex, long-term consequences, moral injuries also produce harm, experienced as guilt, shame, fear and anger, often directed at the self. I believe that under Donald Trump, millions upon millions of people are enduring daily moral injuries that are extremely harmful to psychological well-being. Read more
I’m an evangelical Christian. There’s danger in casting Charlie Kirk as a martyr. By Rachel Roth Aldhizer / Wash Post
Evangelical churches across the country have resounded with sermons making a case for remembering the deeply religious conservative activist as a Christian martyr.
That is a dangerous path. It risks inflaming more political violence, drives a deeply polarized country further apart and threatens Kirk’s formidable yet complicated legacy. Read more
How “Antisemitism” Became a Weapon of the Right. By Lily Meyer / TNR
At a time when allegations of antisemitism are rampant and often incoherent, historian Mark Mazower offers a helpfully lucid history of the term.
Mazower has devoted his career to studying Europe, and On Antisemitism, like antisemitism itself, begins there. On Antisemitism covers antisemitism in all of pre–World War II Europe, but it’s especially interested in what Mazower calls “the German lands”—Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In those territories, the nineteenth century was a time of intense nationalism, often of nation-founding. As new countries were established, the question of whether their resident Jews should receive full citizenship loomed large. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Watch “Nikole Hannah-Jones on ‘1619,’ Trump and the Power of Dissent in 2025” on YouTube / By Wesley Morris
Six years ago, with the publication of The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones argued that slavery was a foundational institution upon which the United States was built. President Trump called the project a crusade against American history — ideological poison that, “if not removed,” would “dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together.”
Now, his administration is making a similar argument to attack diversity programs, historical discussions of slavery, civil rights and more as he pressures museums, schools, government agencies, national parks and other civic institutions to de-emphasize race. Watch here
National parks axe signs about climate, slavery and Japanese internment. By Jake Spring / Wash Post
The removals come after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March seeking to remove “improper partisan ideology” from federal institutions.
The removals come after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March seeking to remove “improper partisan ideology” from federal institutions, including the Smithsonian museums, that he says was perpetuated by the Biden administration. Park Service officials have broadly interpreted the order to apply to information on racism, sexism, Indigenous persecution, gay rights and climate change. Read more
Related: Where’s Black MAGA While Trump Wipes Black History? By Garrison Hayes / Mother Jones
An exemplary survey of race portends trouble for the Smithsonian. By Phillip Kennicott / Wash Post
President Donald Trump singled out “The Shape of Power” for criticism, but the show was a success.
Planning for the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” started in 2019. That was before the second Trump administration began its assault on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and openly made constraining racial dialogue the most vigorous part of its domestic arts and culture agenda. Read more
Decades after Stella got her groove back, Terry McMillan just gets better. By Lisa Page / Wash Post
A new book, “It Was the Way She Said It,” a collection of stories, essays and speeches, makes a case for giving the best-selling author greater recognition.
In the foreword to McMillan’s new book, “It Was the Way She Said It,” Ishamel Reed notes that McMillan was one of three Black women on the New York Times Best Sellers list in 1992, but unlike the other two — Toni Morrison and Alice Walker — McMillan did not win a Pulitzer. McMillan “wrote just as well,” Reed argues, even if “the arbiters of Black fiction” did not find her work worthy of that prize. She was “the people’s choice.” Read more
Sports
The significance of 16 Black NFL starting quarterbacks cannot be overlooked. By William C. Rhoden and Jason Reid / Andscape
As the NFL enters its third week, a significant milestone of the new season has been overlooked and underappreciated, namely that 16 of 32 starting quarterbacks are African American. Each of the 16 starters has a unique story. During the course of the season, Andscape will explore the path each athlete has taken to become part of this milestone.
“You hear those numbers — sometimes it’s overlooked — but you really have to take a second to pause and think about how far the African American quarterback has come,” said New York Jets veteran quarterback Tyrod Taylor. He entered the league in 2011 with the Baltimore Ravens. He has been a starter, a backup and now is a starter again in place of another Black quarterback, Justin Fields, who is injured. Read more
“HIM” decries our false football Gods. By Coleman Spilde / Salon
The Jordan Peele-produced sports horror examines cult-like fanaticism with a heavy hand. Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers in “HIM” (Universal Pictures)
In the new sports thriller “HIM,” director and co-writer Justin Tipping cleverly lampoons the intense fanfare of organized sports, examining how much the pursuit of an intangible title like “GOAT” can cost an ambitious player. On the football field, the deafening roar of the crowd and the buzz of adrenaline unify into one continuous hum, a voice in the back of a player’s head encouraging bloodlust and brutality. Read more
Stephen A. Smith hints at reason why Molly Qerim ‘abruptly resigned’ from ESPN: ‘Not happy about it.’ By Jenna Lemoncelli / New York Post
Stephen A. Smith said that his now-former “First Take” co-star, Molly Qerim, “abruptly resigned” from ESPN on Monday night, “effective immediately,” after 10 years of sharing the same airwaves.
During Tuesday’s installment of his Sirius XM show, Smith explained that ESPN didn’t want to lose Qerim amid contract negotiations with the host, adding “it’s just uncomfortable to see” and he’s “not happy about it.” “To say that I’m quite sad about it is an understatement,” he said on “The Stephen A Smith Show,” which aired shortly after Tuesday morning’s “First Take” that didn’t feature Qerim. Read more
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