Featured
The US is complicit in genocide. Let’s stop pretending otherwise. By Mehdi Hasan / The Guardian
Can we finally stop pretending that what we have been witnessing in Gaza over the past 22 months is a “war,” a “conflict,” or even a “humanitarian crisis”? Many of the world’s leading human rights and humanitarian groups – including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders – agreed months ago that what is being livestreamed to our phones on a daily basis is indeed a genocide.
This week, Israel’s own leading human rights group announced that it had reached “the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip”. In other words, said B’Tselem, “Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”. Read more
Related: Leading genocide scholars see a genocide happening in Gaza. By Ishaan Tharoor / Wash Post
Netanyahu Is Choosing to Starve Gaza.
The enduring anguish of the kind of starvation that has taken hold in Gaza lives on in personal and collective memory for generations. Starvation also lives on in the body, especially for the young. For children who survive acute malnutrition, the resulting physical and cognitive damage can last a lifetime.
Those of us who have studied famines over many decades recognize the dreadful signs when social collapse is imminent — when the bonds that tie a community together are fraying and order is breaking down. It is a moment at which death rates grow exponentially and beyond which the fabric of society becomes far more difficult to repair. This disintegration portends chaos and conflict, delinquency and a fierce hopelessness that can breed fresh terrorism. Gaza appears to be passing into that zone now. Read more
Related: Anger Over Starvation in Gaza Leaves Israel Increasingly Isolated. Steven Erlanger / NYT
Political / Social
Behind Trump and Vance Is This Man’s Movement. By Ezra Klein / NYT Podcast
In 2018, Yoram Hazony, an Israeli political theorist, released a book that became a sensation on the right. It was called “The Virtue of Nationalism,” and it sought to build a right that could withstand the challenge that liberals like Obama had posed. It sought to make a right that would reimagine belonging not around the ideals that won the Civil War but the people who fought it. Hazony became the founder of a movement. Year after year, he would host NatCon — short for National Conservatism — conferences. And year after year, one of the people who would come to those conferences and speak at them was JD Vance. That’s part of the ferment in which he developed the politics we know him for today. Read more or listen here. Read here for a summary of their conversation.
How Trump Is Plotting To Disrupt The Next Election. By
With a combination of executive orders, legal maneuvers and staffing decisions, President Donald Trump has already put in motion his next effort to subvert upcoming federal elections in 2026 and 2028.
Since taking office, Trump has installed loyalists who follow his orders into key positions at the Department of Justice, issued executive orders centralizing decision-making within the White House, attempted to unilaterally change state and local election laws, demanded unprecedented access to voter data, dismantled election security protections, threatened elections officials and workers, law firms and others who have historically stood up to protect elections and defended, hired or pardoned those involved in previous efforts to subvert elections. Read more
American democracy is crashing out and it will be hard to reverse, international rights group warns. By Russell Payne / Salon
The Trump administration is acting like “dictatorial regimes do,” according to the global rights monitor CIVICUS
Related: The Rule of Law Is Dead in the US. By Elie Mystal / The Nation
Related: Trump’s Domestic Use of Military Set to Get Worse, Leaked Memo Shows. By Greg Sargent / TNR
Related: ‘Rage Against the Regime’ protests planned against Trump. By Eduardo Cuevas / USA Today
Trump’s mass deportations are hurting local economies. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
From rotting crops to shuttered assembly lines, we will all soon feel the effects of Trump’s cruel policies
Related: There’s a Name for What Trump Is Doing. Juan Crow. Soraya Nadia McDonald / NYT
Florida is the laboratory for MAGA — and American autocracy. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Journalist Robert W. Fieseler on his new book “American Scare” and how “we’re all Floridians now”
Black unemployment under Trump reaches its highest rate since the pandemic. Here’s what it could mean. By Gerren Keith Gaynor / The Grio (Image by Blacknews)
The latest jobs report released by the Department of Labor shows that Black unemployment spiked to 7.2% in July, marking its highest rate since the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago.
“Trump says he’s ‘done more for Black Americans than anyone.’ If pushing Black unemployment to its highest level since 2021 is his idea of progress, we’d hate to see what failure looks like to him,” said Brandon Weathersby, a spokesperson for American Bridge 21st Century. Read more
Related: 300,000 Black Women Left Or Were Pushed Out Of The Workforce. By Jennifer R. Farmer / Newsone
Why Black Advocates Say Voting Rights Are Hanging by a Thread. By Brandon Tensley / Capital B
Six decades after the most important federal statute protecting the right to vote was signed into law, advocates say, Black political power is hanging by a thread.
As supporters prepare to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, here’s what to know about the status of its most significant sections and the ongoing challenges to Black access to the ballot box. Read more
Education
Under Pressure From Trump, the Accreditor Overseeing Harvard Proposes Nixing DEI Standards. By Eric Kelderman / The Chronicle of Higher Ed
The New England Commission of Higher Education — which accredits more than 200 colleges, primarily in the Northeast — is one of several major institutional accreditors that are reconsidering if and how members should demonstrate how they’re meeting diversity goals.
The commission’s members were concerned about potential conflicts between the accreditor’s standards and declarations from the federal government that DEI measures are illegal, said Lawrence M. Schall, president of the commission. Read more
Virginia Education Board Could Oust George Mason’s President. Vimal Patel / NYT
Republicans are investigating the president, Gregory Washington, and the school over his support for diversity efforts at the university, Virginia’s largest public institution.
Many professors at George Mason University had feared that their embattled president, under intense pressure from the Trump administration, could lose his job on Friday, as the school’s board members met to discuss his performance. He appears to be safe, for now. Read more
Elite New York High School Admits 8 Black Students in a Class of 781. Troy Closson / NYT
For years, the low representation of Black and Hispanic students in New York City’s most selective public high schools has ignited debate over race and segregation in the largest school system in the United States — and this summer appears likely to be no different.
On Thursday, the Department of Education announced that Black students received 3 percent of acceptance letters to the eight elite schools, known as specialized high schools, while Hispanic students were offered just under 7 percent of all spots. Both figures were a slight decline from last year. Read more
Trump’s tariffs are undermining the peaceful, prosperous world order. By Fareed Zakaria / Wash Post
In the blizzard of last-minute tariff threats and trade deals, Americans are losing sight of the big story: a seismic shift in world affairs. The United States, the creator and upholder of the open global economy, is now imposing its highest average tariff rate in nearly a century — and now has the highest tariffs of any major economy in the world.
The Trump administration is reversing 80 years of American economic and foreign policy that consistently pushed countries to remove restrictions and taxes on trade. The effects of this policy revolution are not to be measured in today’s stock prices, but rather in the kind of world that will emerge as a result. Read more
Related: How the Threat of Trump’s Highest Tariff Derailed an African Nation. By John Eligon / NYT
Related: Trump hits South Africa with 30% tariffs – no African country has a higher rate. By Khanyisile Ngcobo / BBC
Comparing ICE to the Gestapo reveals people’s fears for the US – a Holocaust scholar explains why Nazi analogies remain common, yet risky. By Daniel H. Magilow / The Conversation
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently sparked controversy by comparing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Nazi Germany’s notorious secret police, the Gestapo. In recent months, other Democratic politicians, including U.S Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, have also compared ICE to the Gestapo, or Adolf Hitler’s “secret police,” as Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said in April. But do ICE’s tactics actually resemble those of the Gestapo?
Ethics / Morality / Religion
David Brooks on Moral Courage for a Soulless Age. The Russell Moore Show / Christianity Today Podcast
What happens when a movement built on moral seriousness gives way to one powered by cruelty, resentment, and nihilism?
In this episode, New York Times columnist David Brooks joins to talk about what he calls one of the greatest ruptures of his lifetime: the implosion of the conservative movement’s moral center. Listen here
Have Radicalized Christians Completely Forgotten Jesus? By Ginny Baxter / Patheos
It appears they have. “Love thy neighbor” has been replaced by “Hate people who are different, especially if they are poor, have dark skin or come from another country.” Loud-mouthed arrogance has replaced the humility of Christ, and materialism has replaced spiritual riches. Read more
Aretha Franklin and the Apostle Paul agree: Sing! By Jason D. Thompson / RNS
What would a conversation between Aretha Franklin and the Apostle Paul sound like? The question may seem random, as the two figures are so different. One is the Queen of Soul, a Memphis native and Detroit icon of R&B and civil rights anthems. The other, Paul, is the foundational apostle whose ancient letters continue to shape Christian theology.
Historical / Cultural
1893: Racial Crisis and White Supremacy. By Philip Jenkins / Patheos
The years 1892 through 1894 were a dreadful time, which marked the decisive shift to a horrible new social and political reality. In some telling instances in those years, the two realities – optimistic White progressivism and desperate Black resistance – came into overt conflict. Read more
Plans underway to put Robert E. Lee monument back on display. By Patrick Phillips / WCSC
The American Heritage Association says the Robert E. Lee monument, which was taken down in 2021, will be put back up on public display in Charleston County.
The monument will be re-erected in a “more prominent location within the city of Charleston,” AHA President Brett Barry said in a release Tuesday. “President Trump has provided Americans an opportunity to turn the tide in the historical monument debate, and we are succeeding,” Barry said. Read more
The Trouble of Color: An Interview with Martha S. Jones. By Robert Greene II / AAIHS
Greene: For historians of Black thought, the idea of passing—and what that means for individuals and families alike—has always been greatly intriguing. Why is the idea of passing so important to understanding the Black American experience, especially during the age of Jim Crow segregation?
Jones: This is an important question, but I want to be careful. Preparing to write a memoir meant that I did a lot of reading, including into the literature on passing. And while I can tell you how passing was important in my family, my conclusions are not sociological. The Trouble of Color invites readers to sit with one family’s experiences and try them on, compare them, and arrive at their own ideas about why passing has been and even continues to be important to them. Read more
Black people loved Malcolm-Jamal Warner fiercely. And he loved us back. By Kelley L. Carter / Andscape
Famed actor died after reportedly drowning in Costa Rica. He was 54
Warner was our brother. Our cousin. He was our homie and one of the first to change the narrative about what a young Black American teen was in the 1980s and ’90s. Along with his TV family, he gifted the world a view of Black life that some just simply didn’t believe was fathomable at the time. Read more
The Life And Legacy Of Don Cornelius. By Shannon Dawson / Newsone
Don Cornelius, the legendary creator and host of ‘Soul Train,’ cemented an incredible legacy for Black music throughout the ’70s and early 2000s.
Cornelius will always be remembered as a trailblazer who changed the face of American television. His creation of Soul Train, a groundbreaking television show, not only elevated Black music but also celebrated the richness of African-American culture at a time when representation on TV was minimal. Through his work, Cornelius opened doors for countless artists, dancers, and performers, and his legacy continues to resonate today.
Read more
Sports
A former NBA star has a grand master plan to make chess cooler. By Ben Golliver / Wash Post
Derrick Rose partnered with Magnus Carlsen, the top-ranked player in the world, as part of an initiative to make chess more appealing to casual participants.
Rose was known for his stone-faced demeanor on the court, but he beamed as former Boston Celtics star Rajon Rondo, Charlotte Hornets forward Grant Williams and Golden State Warriors center Quinten Post, among others, competed in timed games in front of more than 100 spectators. Thousands of viewers from around the world watched online as Carlsen guided Rose through strategy sessions. Read more
In football-mad Ohio, a camp focused on social justice is still going strong. By Dave Sheinin / Wash Post
For the fifth straight year, teams came together for discussions about social justice, unity and acceptance. The event has continued despite the end of diversity-related initiatives across the state and the country.
The buses came from all directions: rickety, yellow ones down the country roads stretching north; fancy, air-conditioned ones from the rich, private schools in the suburbs; dozens more from the urban cores of Cincinnati and Columbus, the rural hamlets dotting the outskirts, the struggling former steel towns scattered across the southeastern quadrant of the state. Read more
Just one Black woman coaches a WNBA team. She shares ‘truth with love.’ By Jerry Brewer / Wash Post
Noelle Quinn of the Seattle Storm is emotionally invested in her team, and she has proved she has staying power in a league that can be impatient.
In a society of noise, Quinn personifies stillness. The rest of the attention-seeking world would consider her shy, but after spending two months getting to know her, I must disagree. She’s just Noey, as the people she’s close with affectionately call her. She’s soft-spoken yet a strong presence in a novel way. Read more
ESPN parts ways with Shannon Sharpe following settlement of rape lawsuit: Sources. By Andrew Marchand / The Athletic
ESPN has cut ties with NFL Hall of Famer and media analyst Shannon Sharpe less than two weeks after he settled a lawsuit in which his ex-girlfriend accused him of rape, sources briefed on the decision told The Athletic on Wednesday.
Sharpe has not been on ESPN since late April, when the suit was first filed. He said at the time that he would return to ESPN at the beginning of NFL training camp. ESPN declined to comment. Read more
Deion Sanders says he had cancerous tumor, bladder removed this offseason. By David Ubben / The Athletic
Deion Sanders had his bladder removed in May after doctors discovered an aggressive cancerous tumor, the Colorado football coach announced at a Monday news conference.
“He is cured from the cancer,” said Janet Kukreja, the director of urological oncology at CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus. Sanders, 57, had indicated that he was going through a health challenge for the past several months, which he spent away from his team and the Boulder campus, but he had not specified the issue or ongoing effects before Monday. Read more
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