Featured
Trump’s White Nationalist Agenda, Explained. By Garrison Hayes / Mother Jones
The Trump administration doesn’t have a policy plan for America, but it does have an ideology: white nationalism.
That’s what’s driving the barrage of executive orders, shutdowns, and freezes currently wreaking havoc in America. Mother Jones video correspondent Garrison Hayes explains why it’s important to know the difference between white supremacy and white nationalism.
For years, Trump has surrounded himself with right wing ideologues like Stephen Miller, whose penchant for citing white nationalist websites in policy discussion was uncovered during Trump’s first term. Now, America is seeing the impact of the belief in a zero-sum game. “For one group to win, others must lose,” Hayes concludes in an interview with Eric K. Ward, executive vice president of Race Forward, a racial justice non-profit. Read more and watch here
Related: How Trump’s Policies Threaten Black Economic Stability. By Brandon Tensley / Capital One
Political / Social
‘A first taste’: Trump DEI war escalates, reshaping diversity in corporate America. By Jessica Guynn / USA Today
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion is ripping through the private sector as fear rises over losing federal contracts or facing investigations.
Last week, Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense contractor, closed down its DEI department and ended all programs, citing a Trump executive order. Goldman Sachs said this week it retired a formal policy of refusing initial public offering business from companies with all white, male boards, saying it “served its purpose.” Read more
Related: DEI Was Never Going to Save Us. By Malaika Jabali / The Nation
Trump’s shock and awe campaign rocks the courts. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Donald Trump’s shock and awe campaign has many targets. These include but are not limited to the country’s democracy, political and social institutions, the social safety net, the economy, the American people’s sense of normalcy and routine and overall physical and emotional health, the Constitution and the rule of law.
In an attempt to make better sense of President Trump and his administration’s use of executive orders and their legality and power, I recently spoke with Douglas Keith. He is senior counsel at the Brennan Center’s Judiciary program, which works to promote fair, diverse and impartial courts. Keith is also a founding editor of State Court Report, a Brennan Center publication focused on state courts and state constitutional law. Read more
RFK Jr. is now America’s top health official after winning Senate confirmation to lead HHS. By Nicholas Liu / Salon
Kennedy, who built a career as an anti-vaccine activist, now leads the Department of Health and Human Services
“[Kennedy’s] dangerous positions could take a sledgehammer to our nation’s medical and public health systems,” wrote former CDC Acting Director Richard E. Besser for U.S. News & World Report. “Kennedy has sowed confusion and distrust on health issues, favoring pseudoscience over evidence-based science and conspiracy theories over truth. Disinformation harms all people, but the ripple effects can do the most damage in communities with the greatest health disparities.” Read more
Trump’s DOJ sparks controversy in halting Adams prosecution. By Niall Stanage / The Hill
The Trump administration, which has been moving like a juggernaut across the political landscape, has hit a land mine. The decision by Trump’s Justice Department to halt the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has caused uproar.
Now, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon said the Adams deal would set “a breathtaking and dangerous precedent” — one that was tantamount to “using the criminal process to control the behavior of a political figure.” Read more
World News
How Elon Musk is boosting far-right politics across the globe. By Leila Register / NBC News
The world’s richest man is trying to sway politics on six continents.
Billionaire tech executive Elon Musk has encouraged right-wing political movements, policies and administrations in at least 18 countries in a global push to slash immigration and curtail regulation of business, according to an NBC News review of his political activity over the past two years. While Musk has received widespread attention for the upheaval he is causing in the U.S. government, as well as for his growing role in Germany, where he recently told voters to “move beyond” Nazi guilt, the tech tycoon is making his influence felt in a long and growing list of other countries. Read more
Trump’s Ambition to Redraw the World Map Ignores Those Affected Most. Mark Landler / NYT
Western allies of the United States gathered in Munich this past week, anxious, adrift and despairing in the face of President Trump’s brute display of muscle-flexing on the global stage. But it was people not at the table at the Munich Security Conference who have become most marginalized in Mr. Trump’s world.
Palestinians and Afghans, Greenlanders and Panamanians — these are the true pawns in the president’s geopolitical chess game. Their priorities, preferences and aspirations seem almost beside the point in Mr. Trump’s ambition to redraw the map of the world along “America First” lines. Read more
Related: American rabbis condemn Trump’s Gaza plan in New York Times ad. By Yonat Shimron / RNS
Zelensky Says Ukraine Unlikely to Survive Its War Without U.S. Support. Yonette Joseph / NYT
His comments came on the first day of the Munich Security Conference, where anxious European officials had hoped to learn more about U.S. plans to broker peace talks.
In the excerpt from “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker,” Mr. Zelensky said: “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States.” Read more
Related: Putin Has Long Wanted More Power in Europe. Trump Could Grant It. Paul Sonne / NYT
Ethics / Morality / Religion
“What the Lord established”: Elon Musk is camouflaging a Christian nationalist takeover. By Amanda Marcotte / Salon
Project 2025 was clear: First, purge federal workers. Then replace them with theocrats and fanatics
As Musk ransacks the federal government, trying to push out federal employees and lay waste to the ability of regulatory agencies to do their work, the last thing most people will assume motivates him is Christian fervor. The secular-seeming brand of DOGE serves a useful propagandistic purpose by concealing how much Musk is following the Project 2025 playbook developed by Christian nationalists for the explicit purpose of remaking America in the fundamentalist image. Read more
Black, atheist and unapologetic: the rise of secularism in African American communities. By Justin Ray / The Guardian
More Black people are leaving religion, challenging tradition and redefining community
This shift signals a profound re-examination of identity, community and the role of religion in Black life. While the “nones” – a term used to describe those who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – are growing across all racial demographics, their rise within the Black community is particularly significant given the historical prominence of religion. Read more
Why Is Judaism Struggling In The United States? By Alonzo Gaskell / Patheos
Judaism is one of the most ancient surviving religions on the earth today. Its age, cultural heritage, and deep ritual practice are rivaled by only a few sacred traditions. And, as the parent of the two other Abrahamic religions (i.e., Christianity and Islam), Judaism’s impact on the world has been multiplied many times over.
The number of Jews worldwide (as of 2025) hovers around 15-16 million. Less than half live in Israel, and the United States has the second-highest Jewish population in the world. In the 21st century, Judaism is no longer growing. Indeed, if anything, it is contracting in size—as are most faith traditions today. There are several factors influencing this worldwide decline per capita in the number of Jews, and Jewish observance. Among those are the following: Read more
Historical / Cultural
Bill Introduced To Honor 200,000 Black Union Soldiers With Gold Medal. By Jeroslyn JoVonn / Black Enterprise
A new bill aims to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the African Americans who fought for the Union in the Civil War.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) are leading an effort to secure the Congressional Gold Medal for the 200,000 African Americans who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Read more
Related: How a Black Utopia For Formerly Enslaved People Became a Wealthy White Enclave. By Mother Jones
Josephine Baker, in her own words, amplifies her renown as provocateur. By Lisa Page / Wash Post
In Baker’s newly translated 1949 memoir, “Fearless and Free,” the boundary-breaking performer does not hold back on her opinions.
Her memoir, “Fearless and Free,” is newly translated from French by Anam Zafar and Sophie Lewis. First published in 1949, it is available in English for the first time. The book is an oral history, a series of interviews with Baker recorded by the journalist Marcel Sauvage between 1926 and 1949. Read more
A Great James Earl Jones Role That Can Finally Be Seen. Ben Kenigsberg / NYT
A restored version of Charles Burnett’s 1999 movie “The Annihilation of Fish” opens at the Brooklyn Academy of Music after being virtually unshown for 25 years.
When James Earl Jones died in September at 93, he left behind a great performance that, for 25 years, has gone virtually unseen. The movie, “The Annihilation of Fish,” directed by Charles Burnett, had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999 but never received a proper release. Now it’s getting a second chance, in a restoration that opens Friday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Read more
Captain America is Black. Here’s why it matters. By Kelley L. Carter / Andscape
Anthony Mackie is Captain America. Undeniably Black. Undeniably serving his lines with a trace of that familiar New Orleans twang. Undeniably a hero.
In Captain America: Brave New World, out now, Mackie plays a superhero draped in red, white and blue who is tasked with saving and representing the United States of America. A Black hero rocking the colors of this land and carrying the symbol of the promises afforded to those he serves and protects. Read more
Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae have cut ties with the Kennedy Center now that Trump is chair. By Ayana Archie / NPR
Several entertainers have announced that they are severing ties with the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C., now that President Trump has assumed the chairmanship of the organization.
Screenwriter Shonda Rhimes, known for her work on shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder, posted a screenshot of a media report about her departure from the board on Instagram. The post included a quote from former President Kennedy: “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” Read more
Sports
Will the Eagles visit the White House after Super Bowl win? By Alana Wise / NPR
The Philadelphia Eagles secured the coveted Super Bowl victory this week over the Kansas City Chiefs. But will the winning team make the customary visit to the White House to celebrate with President Trump? If history is any indication, probably not.
The last time the Eagles scored a Super Bowl win was in 2018, during Trump’s first presidency. That year, across professional sport organizations, teams were embroiled in controversy over athletes choosing to kneel during the National Anthem in protest of systemic racism in America. Read more
Who are the Washington Generals? The Harlem Globetrotters’ archrival, and much more. By James Jackson and Jason Jones / The Athletic
The Washington Generals epitomize the notion of an underdog. That’s an easy reputation to earn with more than 18,000 losses compared to three wins on one’s résumé, but the Generals have been on the losing end time and time again when looking at their decades-long rivalry with the Harlem Globetrotters.
It’s hard to explain the competitive value of knowing you’ll lose just about every basketball game you play. Imagine training your hardest, only to anticipate the scoreboard not tilting in your favor. The notion can be frustrating, right? Read more
NFL’s progress with diversity in coaching ranks yet to translate to offensive coordinator. By Tashan Reed / The Athletic
Until the Chicago Bears promoted Thomas Brown to interim offensive coordinator on Nov. 12, the NFL didn’t have a single Black offensive coordinator. And after Brown was promoted again to interim head coach later that month following the firing of Matt Eberflus, the Bears gave Beatty the bump to take him from wide receivers coach to the league’s lone Black offensive coordinator.
It’s no secret that the path to the offensive coordinator position runs through the quarterback room. While that has been a position that Black individuals were historically excluded from coaching — or even playing — that has changed in recent years. There were nearly two dozen quarterbacks of color who started a game last season and a league-record nine quarterback coaches of color. Read more
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