Featured
The Real Meaning of Trump’s Smithsonian Executive Order. By Clint Smith / The Atlantic
And what happens when empirical fact is labeled “improper ideology”
The history inside the museum still reverberates through our country. It is impossible to understand the contemporary landscape of social, political, and economic inequality without understanding the forces and events that served as its catalysts. This is why so many have worked so hard to silence this history.
In his March 27 executive order, President Trump directed Vice President J. D. Vance to “remove improper ideology” from NMAAHC and other Smithsonian museums. As I walked around the museum, I wondered which of these exhibits would fall under that rubric. What does it mean for something to be improper if the administration’s understanding of what is acceptable excludes anything that might make white Americans feel bad? Read more
Political / Social
Trump has lowest 100-day approval rating in 80 years: POLL By Gary Langer / ABC News
Majorities of voters disapprove of many of Trump’s policies, the poll found.
Donald Trump has the lowest 100-day job approval rating of any president in the past 80 years, with public pushback on many of his policies and extensive economic discontent, including broad fears of a recession, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll. Yet he still beats the Democrats in Congress in terms of trust to handle the nation’s main problems. Read more
Related: The world has a verdict on 100 days of Trump 2.0: Wow, what a loser. By Andrew O’Hehir
However Scared You Are, You Are Not Scared Enough. By S.V. Date / HuffPost
However scared you might be for our democracy, you are not scared enough.
And now, not 100 days into his term, he has done what so many democracy advocates have feared he would eventually do, something that no president has dared try in the more than two centuries since Marbury v. Madison’s precedent that the judiciary would be the ultimate authority on what is and what is not legal: He is straight-up defying the United States Supreme Court. And — here is the truly terrifying part — he is getting away with it. No one is getting fined. No one is going to jail. In fact, much of America doesn’t even realize it’s happening. Read more
Related: American Values Are Threatened by the American President. By Nicholas Kristof / NYT
Related: Trump’s War on Immigrants Has Become an Attack on Us All. By Matt Ford / The New Republic
19 States Sue the Trump Administration Over Its D.E.I. Demand in Schools. By Sarah Mervosh / NYT
A coalition of 19 states sued the Trump administration on Friday over its threat to withhold federal funding from states and districts with certain diversity programs in their public schools.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court by the attorneys general in California, New York, Illinois, Minnesota and other Democratic-leaning states, who argue that the Trump administration’s demand is illegal. The lawsuit centers on an April 3 memo the Trump administration sent to states, requiring them to certify that they do not use certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs that the administration has said are illegal. Read more
Trump Rescinds HBCU Support: A Dismantling Of Opportunity For Our Youth. By Keka Araujo / Black Enterprise
The Trump administration’s recent decision to rescind the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), formalized in Executive Order 14041 of September 3, 2021, represents a grave disservice to American higher education and a direct affront to the aspirations of Black students.
Trump’s new executive order establishes the “White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” Its mission includes increasing private-sector roles to strengthen HBCUs and enhance their capabilities to serve young adults. “On the surface, the order aligns with the efforts of past administrations. However, it lacks a concrete commitment to new federal funding.” (see Forbes below) Read more
Related: What’s In Trump’s Executive Order On HBCUs? By Marybeth Gasman / Forbes
Related: Trump targeting college accreditation process in new executive order. By and
Does the Civil Rights Act protect or, as Trump says, promote favoritism? By Deborah Barfield Berry / USA Today
The landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act aimed to prevent workplace discrimination. Trump says it promotes bias and will not enforce it.
A new Trump executive order could undo years of hard-fought gains against discrimination, civil rights leaders and Constitutional law experts said. Trump signed an executive order on April 23 that would repeal or amend provisions of the act, saying his change “guarantees equality of opportunity, not equal outcomes.” Read more
Related: Breaking Down What Trump’s Executive Orders Mean for Black Americans. By Brandon Tensley / Capital One
Related: Trump Is Waging War on the Poor. By Liz Theoharris and Noam Sandweiss-Back / The Nation
How Trump’s federal job cuts put Black employees at risk. By Marisa Peñaloza, and Hansi Lo Wang / NPR
Working for the U.S. government also came with the kinds of benefits and job stability that have attracted many Black federal employees for generations. A home in Prince George county Maryland, one of the wealthiest majority-Black counties in the country.
Now, the Trump administration’s slashing of government jobs, ongoing hiring freeze and attack on diversity, equity and inclusion programs are upending what has been a longstanding path into the middle class for many Black workers. Read more
We Visited Rumeysa Ozturk in Detention. What We Saw Was a Warning to Us All. Edward J. Markey, Jim McGovern and
Why did the Trump administration target her? By all accounts, it’s because she was one of the authors of an opinion essay for The Tufts Daily criticizing her university’s response to resolutions that the Tufts student senate passed regarding Israel and Gaza. This is not immigration enforcement. This is repression. This is authoritarianism. We visited Ms. Ozturk earlier this week at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, La. Read more
Related: Many Jews say Trump is politicizing the fight against antisemitism. By Naftali Bendavid / Wash Post
First Black Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman dies at 77. By Tom Dreisbach / NPR
Former President Bill Clinton nominated Herman to the role, which she held from 1997 to 2001, following a career in social work, civil rights and Democratic politics.
“Hillary and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Alexis Herman, our friend of nearly fifty years,” former President Clinton said in a statement. “Our hearts and prayers are with her family and all who loved and admired her. “Herman was born in Mobile, Ala., in 1947, at a time when Jim Crow laws imposed racial segregation and discrimination across the American South. “The struggle for civil rights was a daily part of our lives,” Herman later testified to Congress. Read more
World News
Africa was vital to Francis’s papacy — and will shape the church’s future. By Rachel Chason , Rael Ombuor, Abiodun Jamiu and Andrei Popoviciu / Wash Post
One in 5 of the world’s Catholics now live in Africa, and African cardinals will be key in determining Francis’s successor at the upcoming conclave.
Pope Francis ministered to the poor in Kenya and kissed the feet of South Sudan’s feuding rulers in a plea for peace. He urged Christians and Muslims to reconcile in the Central African Republic and condemned the exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And he elevated African church leaders who will help choose his successor — and shape the future of the church. Read more
U.S., African business partners scramble as end of trading law approaches. By Athan Yanos / UPI
U.S. and African trading partners are studying ways to preserve trade relations despite the end of a law that had been promoting trade for 2,000 products for 25 years.
Soon, the African Growth and Opportunities Act Civil Society Organization Network was expected to deliver to Congress, the Trump administration and African governments recommendations for preserving and strengthening U.S.-African trade relations. However, the law will expire this September unless renewed, and with President’s Trump’s America First trade agenda, the continuation of the law that benefits trade from this part of the world seems to be seriously in doubt, according to observers. Read more
Gaza Death Toll Since Israel Shattered Ceasefire in March Reaches 2,000, Entire Families Wiped Out. Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
In Gaza, Israeli attacks have killed more than 60 people since early Thursday, bringing the death toll since Israel shattered a ceasefire agreement last month to nearly 2,000.
Among the recent dead are a family of five — a pregnant mother, a father and their three children — who were killed by an Israeli drone strike on their tent in the southern Gaza Strip. Another strike early Thursday collapsed a home in Gaza City, killing a Palestinian former prisoner and his entire family. Read more
Related: UN runs out of food in Gaza two months after Israel’s total blockade. By Sharon Braithwaite and
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Black church leader says Target boycott won’t ease until DEI programs return. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
Some reports suggest Target has seen decreases in foot traffic during the same period as the boycotts. The Rev. Jamal Bryant speaks about continuing the Lenten fast of Target during the Easter Sunday service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, April, 20, 2025, in Atlanta.
A collective Lenten fast from making purchases at Target has been lengthened into a “full-out boycott,” the Rev. Jamal Bryant, pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch and one of the leaders of the campaign, announced on Easter Sunday (April 20). Read more
A onetime migrant — now a bishop — asks Catholics: Do we have a heart? By Karen Tumulty / Wash Post
Evelio Menjivar-Ayala criticizes U.S. immigration policies and Catholic inaction.
A U.S. citizen since 2006, Menjivar watches with dismay at what is happening today. “I feel very much part of this migrant community here in the United States and in Washington. So, when I talk about immigrants, I’m talking about myself and my own experience, and also about my own fears and hopes as well. Read more
Trump Gets Called Out in Front of Millions at Pope’s Funeral. By Tom Sykes / The Daily Beast
President Donald Trump may have gotten his front row seat at Pope Francis’ funeral, but the Pope rebuked him from beyond the grave anyway.
Trump and Francis had clashed repeatedly over the years, beginning in early 2016, when Francis criticized Trump’s plan to build a border wall, saying that anyone who thought only of building walls and not bridges “is not Christian ”The homily may only have been an implicit rebuke, but after such a public clash over building walls, there can be no mistake that it was a deliberate and pointed one from the Vatican in front of millions watching around the world. Read more
Pam Bondi Unleashes On Alleged ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ — And A Christian Leader Has Thoughts. By Kimberley Richards / HuffPost
A task force aimed at eradicating “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government had its first meeting. A Christian leader, and an expert on American religious history weighed in.
Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance and an ordained Baptist minister, joins the chorus of those who have taken issue with the Trump administration’s apparent messaging that Christianity, the largest faith group in the U.S., is under attack. Read more
Sports
Shannon Sharpe steps away from ESPN in wake of $50 million suit. By Cydney Henderson / USA Today
Pro Football Hall of Famer and media personality Shannon Sharpe said on Thursday he is stepping away from ESPN. Sharpe regularly appears as a panelist on “First Take” and is currently embroiled in a $50 million sexual assault and battery civil lawsuit.
Sharpe’s decision to step away comes on the heels of a civil lawsuit filed against him in Clark County, Nevada on Sunday. According to the suit obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the plaintiff, listed under the alias “Jane Doe,” alleged that Sharpe sexually assaulted her twice, once in October 2024 and again in January 2025. They met at a Los Angeles gym in 2023 when she was 19. Read more
Eagles’ Jalen Hurts Has No Words for White House Visit After Eagles Accepted Donald Trump’s Invitation. By Amit Kumar Jha / Essentially Sports
Jalen Hurts was not excited about the trip. TIME magazine reporter asked the quarterback about their upcoming White House Visit, he remained quiet and did not utter a word. Does it mean something big? Jalen Hurts is not a very big fan of Donald Trump.
The last time the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, they were hoping for an invitation to the White House. But the president rescinded it, claiming the team wasn’t worthy because several players had refused to stand for the national anthem. Tensions ran high that year. Read more
Why one simple word defines Steph Curry’s leadership with the Warriors. The Athletic Staff / NYT
Curry even has a name for that stage of his workouts: “Joy.”
Throughout his 16-year career, all with the Warriors, Curry has developed into one of the unique leaders of his era. Not overtly demanding or vocal, he challenges traditional ideas of leadership and provides a different framework in which to cajole, rally and inspire. At the heart of Curry’s leadership style is one word, repeated again and again by teammates, coaches and staffers. It’s the same word he uses for his end-of-workout games: Joy. Read more
With Shedeur Sanders pick, Browns show again they aren’t afraid of big personalities. By Jason Lloyd / The Athletic
Sanders’ fall has been well documented. There was a time he was believed to be under consideration by the Browns with the second pick. Instead, they got him in the fifth round and 144th overall. Under that lens, it’s hard to argue the value of the pick. It’s everything else that’s curious.
This is an organization that has routinely run into bonfires in the past: Johnny Manziel, Odell Beckham Jr., Baker Mayfield and, most recently, Deshaun Watson. Each came with a big personality and varying degrees of talent. Each left the Browns with third-degree burns. The building is still in bandages from Watson. Read more
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