Featured
Trump vows to save white South Africans while Musk calls for welcoming them as refugees. By Nicholas Liu / Salon
Trump and Musk have spread false claims that South Africa’s government is oppressing white people
Donald Trump is throwing his weight into the racial politics of South Africa, the country where Elon Musk grew up as the son of a wealthy property developer under apartheid. The president announced this week that he would withhold all aid from the country as punishment for a law intended to address persistent racial disparities in the formerly white supremacist state, particularly the fact that white landowners control three-quarters of its freehold farmland despite making up just 7% of the population. Read more
Related: Explainer-What is behind Trump’s aid threat to South Africa over land? By Tim Cocks / Reuters
Related: South Africa denies ‘confiscating land,’ after Trump threatens to cut off aid. By Jessie Yeung / CNN
Political / Social
Who Will Stop Elon Musk’s Coup? By Jeet Heer / The Nation
The world’s richest man now has the power to override congressional spending decisions and access to private information about every US taxpayer.
Elon Musk, often described as Donald Trump’s shadow president, has quickly morphed into something much more dangerous: Trump’s co-autocrat. Hitherto, Trump’s biggest threat to American democracy came when he incited the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The event was typically Trump in that it was lurid, violent, theatrical, and televised. January 6, like Trump’s first term, demonstrated that he had the ability to menace democratic norms and spur on mayhem—but not to really control the ultimate operation of government. Read more
Related: Elon Musk Backs Race-Based Immigration in Overnight Post. By Leigh Kimmins / Daily Beast
Trump 2.0: The most damaging two weeks in history. By Ruth Marcus / Wash Post
Trump’s second term is all about curtailing government’s power and reach.
No president in history has caused more damage to the nation more quickly. As we enter Week 3 of President Donald Trump’s second term, the chaos and disruption of his first look quaint by comparison. The country survived Trump 1.0. Now, it faces a real threat that the harm he inflicts during his second term will be irreparable. The United States’ standing in the world, its ability to keep the country safe, the federal government’s fundamental capacity to operate effectively — all of these will take years to repair, if that can be achieved at all. Read more
Related: Donald Trump’s Orbán playbook is working exactly as intended. By Dahlia Lithwick / Slate
“Americans were sleep-marched into fascism”: Signs of creeping authoritarianism we can’t miss again. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Americans have “no lived experience of what happens when oligarchs sink their fangs into a country”
This strategy of chaos and confusion is more than “just” a political strategy, it is a reflection of, and amplified by, Trump’s personality, character and mind. Trump’s followers and allies are excited by the chaos because to them it is an example of him being a man of action and vitality and in all a great leader who is channeling the will and energy of the MAGA movement. The appearance of constant action, of being human dynamos, is a common tactic of authoritarians and fascist leaders. In an attempt to make sense of Trump’s historically disruptive first weeks in office and what happens next, I reached out to a range of experts. Read more
“Bully and intimidate”: Trump’s opening assault on diversity is from the Project 2025 playbook. By Tatyana Tandanpolie / Salon
Trump all-encompassing war on diversity is part of an effort to roll back the gains of the Civil Rights Movement
Among President Donald Trump‘s barrage of executive orders have been actions attempting to take down diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government and schools across the country. Those moves threaten long-held civil rights protections and enforcement mechanisms, sparking concern over how far back Trump could take the country to deliver his “Golden Age.” Read more
Related: Pentagon to remove DEI considerations for promotions. By Ellen Mitchell / The Hill
The University of California Increased Diversity. Now It’s Being Sued. Anemona Hartocollis / NYT
The state’s elite campuses, prohibited from using race-based admissions for decades, are now admitting more Black and Hispanic students. A new group is suing, arguing the university system is cheating.
Over the last few months, University of California officials have boasted that they have admitted the most racially diverse class ever to their sprawling system. They have managed to do this, they say, despite a 28-year-old state ban on considering race in college admissions, known as Proposition 209. But a lawsuit filed on Monday by a newly formed group takes aim at the university’s efforts, accusing the California system of cheating by secretly restoring race-conscious admissions in defiance of the state law. The group, Students Against Racial Discrimination, was organized by a persistent critic of affirmative action. Read more
World News
Trump suggests permanent resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza. By Brett Samuels / The Hill
President Trump on Tuesday suggested Palestinians should be permanently relocated out of the Gaza Strip and that the United States should take over the territory after it was reduced to rubble by more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Trump, who was alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a White House visit, doubled down on his suggestion that neighboring Jordan and Egypt take in those from Gaza. But Tuesday was the first time Trump was more clear about Palestinians not returning to their homes in the coastal enclave, even after it’s been rebuilt. Read more
Trump says he will continue funding Ukraine’s war effort — but he wants something rare in return. By Alexander Smith / NBC News
The president appears to have adopted a proposal first made last year that offers “strategic partners” such as the U.S. special access to Ukraine’s glut of natural resources.
President Donald Trump says he wants access to Ukraine’s bonanza of rare earth and critical minerals in exchange for the billions of dollars in military aid Washington has been supplying to Kyiv. It’s an idea previously suggested by Republican senators and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who sought to appeal to Trump’s dealmaker persona as a way of keeping alive Washington’s support of Kyiv. Read more
Trump’s Mass Detention Plan for Guantánamo Harkens Back to U.S. Detention of Haitian Asylum Seekers. Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
Before Guantánamo became what it’s known for — the “forever prison in the war on terror” — its “ambiguous sovereignty” as a U.S. military base was long utilized to incarcerate Caribbean asylum seekers to the U.S.We speak to scholar Miriam Pensack, who researches the history of Guantánamo, in light of President Trump’s recent proposal to once again imprison asylum seekers at the base’s prison complex. Read more and listen here.
Almost all USAID employees globally placed on administrative leave as Trump moves to gut agency. By Joey Garrison / USA Today
About 10,000 employees of the United States Agency for International Development, excluding essential personnel, have been notified that they will be placed on administrative leave at the end of Friday as President Donald Trump moves to dismantle the foreign aid agency.
A State Department notice to USAID employees ‒ two-thirds of whom work overseas across 60 countries ‒ said all USAID “direct hire personnel” across the world will be placed on administrative leave effective Friday at 11:59 p.m. ET. Read more
Related: Africa knew Trump’s ‘America First’ pledge meant it might be last. Then he cut aid : By AP and NPR
Ethics / Morality / Religion
What happens after you ask Trump to ‘have mercy’? Threats, praise and hope. By Olivia George / Wash Post
Bishop Mariann Budde returned to Washington National Cathedral on Sunday for her first public service since her viral inauguration sermon.
Ever since her address to Trump, people nationwide have shared clips of the sermon online. Her book “How We Learn to Be Brave” is ranked second on Amazon’s list of most sold nonfiction — its first week on the list. Memes were made in her honor on social media and references made on late-night shows. More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition thanking her. Read more
Proud Boys Lose Control of Their Name to a Black Church They Vandalized. By Alan Feur / NYT
A judge awarded the trademarked name and symbols to a Washington church to help satisfy a $2.8 million judgment against the far-right group. Members of the Proud Boys vandalizing a banner taken from the Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington in 2020.Credit…
Under a ruling by a Washington judge on Monday, the infamous far-right group was stripped of control over the trademark “Proud Boys” and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. Read more
A church ousts progressive pastor who emphasized racial justice. By Frank Langfitt / NPR
The Sunday after Donald Trump won a second term, Pastor Ben Boswell took to the pulpit at Myers Park Baptist, a liberal church in Charlotte, and delivered the sort of blunt, provocative sermon for which he is well known.
Boswell likened the moment to what he called the “gathering dark of Hitler’s rule.”He added that Trump’s election would lead to the “crucifixion” of immigrant families as well as transgender and nonbinary people. The congregation, including the board of deacons, the church’s governing body, gave Boswell a standingovation. Several weeks later, the board met on Zoom. They voted 17-3 to ask Boswell to step down. NPR obtained the audio. Read more
Pete Hegseth’s belief in Christian dominion should deeply trouble American Jews. By Diane Winston / Forward
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense last week was a clear win for Israeli hawks and their American supporters — one that should alarm every American Jew.
Since the senators at Hegseth’s hearing did not press him further, he did not explain the specific source of his rightwing Zionism: his church, a small congregation outside Nashville. Its teachings dovetail with Christian Reconstructionism, a little-known evangelical movement with big dreams of establishing a theocratic Christian government. Read more
Related: Christian Nationalists Are Swooning Over JD Vance’s Remarks on Fox News. Kiera Butler / Mother Jones
Historical / Cultural
Activists are warning of a return to the Jim Crow era in America. But who or what was Jim Crow? By Clare Carbould / The Conversation
The Jim Crow era emerged after slavery ended because wealthy white people wanted to maintain a cheap labour force.
If there is one lesson to take from the ignominious period of US history known as Jim Crow, it is this: it was overturned only by dint of African Americans’ immense collective efforts. These began with civil court cases in the 1830s through to marching across a bridge in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Plenty of people are looking to their examples of community building, civil disobedience, and collective resistance to once again defend the principles of equality. Read more
Attacking the Dream: 7 major race massacres in US history. By Michael Gryboski / Christian Post
Black History Month is an annual observance in the United States that is centered on celebrating the history, heritage, cultural influence and social contributions of African Americans. An image from the Tulsa Race Riot, which occurred May 31 – June 1, 1921.
It is also a time to remember the generations-long struggle for racial equality in the country, which saw its highs and lows throughout the history of the independent republic. Some of the worst lows in the cause of equality among the races occurred from the end of the American Civil War to the years before the modern Civil Rights Movement was launched. Read more
“Great Migrations: A People on the Move” shows the leaps of faith that made modern America. By Melanie McFarland / Salon
Gates is a historian who has made chronicling the Black experience his life’s work, so here the migration waves he’s discussing, and celebrating, are those of Black Americans in the early 20th century leaving the Jim Crow South in pursuit of great economic opportunity in the North.
“Great Migrations” is a vital addition to Gates’ chronicles, underscoring the tremendous value of ensuring these stories remain alive and accessible. Many memory doors these episodes open do not solely linger on the pain of racial animus, although the series doesn’t back away from it either. More impressive is its sense of triumph and appreciation at everything accomplished by these people of little means picking up their lives and taking them with them, as the Langston Hughes poem extols. “Great Migrations: A People on the Move” airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. through Feb. 18 on PBS member stations and streams on the PBS app and its YouTube channel. Read more
Trump’s urgent push to rewrite American history. By Naftali Bendavid / Wash Post
Those are some of the perspectives President Donald Trump has advanced as he moves in the early days of his second presidency to reframe American history, in parallel with his efforts to reshape the government. In recasting established facts, shading long-accepted truths and endorsing falsehoods, Trump is pushing one big idea: that America is a once-great, uniquely virtuous nation whose past has been betrayed by weak leaders and vicious adversaries. Read more
The biggest Grammys went to Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar. Finally. By Chris Richards / Wash Post
We’re talking about Beyoncé winning album of the year at Sunday night’s 67th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, a sprawling song-and-trophy show that, this time around, suddenly felt entirely logical and deeply triumphant.
Now, “Not Like Us” has been named record and song of the year — a blistering stand-alone single that originated as a Drake diss before evolving into something like a planetary sing-along. The audience inside Crypto.com Arena confirmed it at the top of their voices, chanting along to Lamar’s seething rhymes with a thundering joy as the rapper sauntered toward the stage to collect his prize. Read more
Sports
NFL reaffirms diversity hiring efforts despite Trump’s moves against DEI. By Mark Maske / Wash Post
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that the league would continue to abide by its minority hiring programs because those “efforts are fundamental.”
The nation’s most popular and prosperous professional sports league arrived at its signature event vowing to stick by its diversity initiatives, which once were widely copied by other businesses. But the landscape that the NFL confronts at this Super Bowl week has changed. Read more
The Super Bowl Will Be a Spectacle of Black Excellence, but You’ll Need to Tune Out MAGA’s White Whine. By Dave Zirin / The Nation
Kendrick Lamar, performing here during the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, will be back at the Super Bowl on Sunday. Will the improvisational genius give voice to the unheard or keep quiet about his politics?
The Super Bowl, of course, is this weekend in New Orleans and will be the most watched event of the year. It is still one of the few shared experiences left in this divided country. The day, as programmed by the NFL, was set to celebrate New Orleans’s incredible history of Black music and culture. Yet, given the current climate of voluntary surrender to Donald Trump’s “anti-DEI” (anti-Black) obsession, it would not have surprised me if the NFL pulled the plug and just showed a hologram of Hank Williams Jr. on a loop. Read more
Related: Dynamic Black Marching Bands Are Super Bowl Stalwarts. Emmanuel Morgan / NYT
Coco Gauff gives $100,000 to UNCF for HBCU scholarships. By AP
Tennis star Coco Gauff donated $100,000 to UNCF to provide scholarships for students playing competitive tennis at historically Black colleges and universities.
“My family has a deep-rooted history with HBCUs, going all the way back to my great-great-grandfather. From aunts and uncles to cousins, HBCUs have played a huge role in shaping who we are,” Gauff said. “Supporting UNCF in creating opportunities for student-athletes in tennis means a lot to me. As a young Black athlete, I understand how impactful it is to see people who look like me thriving in both sports and education.” Read more
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