Twitter Users With a Million Followers Are Getting ‘Paid’ Blue Checks, Like It or Not

“Wait I’m crying they’re giving them for punishment now,” Chrissy Teigen tweeted. The change appears to include doling subscription badges out to popular people who are dead

Rolling Stone

Bill would require teaching of Hmong and Asian American history in Wisconsin

“Hmong history is Wisconsin history as far as I’m concerned. They fought alongside the US during the Vietnam War and were forced to find refuge in other countries to avoid persecution. Many chose to make our state their home, including places like Eau Claire and Wausau. When we tell their story, we are telling our story. I think the importance of that cannot be overstated,” said Sen. James, according to WQOW.

AsAm News

The Supreme Court Preserves Abortion Pill Access—Temporarily

The high court has maintained access to a drug used in medication abortion while an appeals court weighs the case—which could take months.

Teen Vogue

Atlanta police investigating 3 ‘violent crimes’ against transgender women, including documentary star

“While these individual incidents are unrelated, we are very aware of the epidemic-level violence black and brown transgender women face in America,” the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement Thursday.

ABC News

NAACP sues Mississippi over ‘separate and unequal policing’

The NAACP warns that “separate and unequal policing” will return to Mississippi’s majority-Black capital under a state-run police department, and the civil rights organization is suing the governor and other officials over it.

Politico

Kamala Harris said 1 in 5 Americans have lost family to gun violence. A poll backs that.

PolitiFact | A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 19% of U.S. adults have a family member who was killed by a gun.

Tampa Bay Times

Lizzo Brings Drag Queens on Stage During Tennessee Show Amid Drag Ban

Lizzo made a powerful statement in support of drag queens last night as she kicked off the second leg of The Special 2our. 

The singer/ rapper performed at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee Friday night and brought out multiple drag queens on stage. The show comes a little over a month after Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law to make public drag performances a crime. The state is the first to pass such a law. 

Lizzo, however, showed her firm stance against the legislation by bringing out several queens on stage to close out the show. In a video posted to her social media, Lizzo can be heard saying, “Support your drag entertainers!” 

Teen Vogue

Texas Senate passes bill requiring public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments

The Texas Senate passed a bill Thursday requiring each public school classroom to display a copy of the Ten Commandments, a move that drew backlash from civil liberty advocates who say lawmakers should not dictate what religious materials students are exposed to.

The legislation, which passed the state Senate on a 17-12 vote, will now head to the state’s House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 1515, authored by state Sen. Phil King, a Republican, requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in a “conspicuous place” in each classroom in a “size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.”

CNN

Minnesota Senate Passes Bill To Ban ‘Conversion Therapy’ For LGBTQ+ People

The state is a step closer to joining 20 others that have clamped down on the discredited practice.

Huffpost

Special forces swiftly evacuate U.S. embassy staff from Sudan

President Biden said he was receiving regular reports from his team on efforts to assist remaining Americans there “to the extent possible.”

Politico

What to know about the situation in Sudan following US embassy evacuation

A power struggle between two leading generals in Sudan that started earlier this month escalated into a full-blown military clash that has prompted embassies in the Northeastern African nation to evacuate.

With the two sides driving Sudan to a de facto civil war, the death toll has shot up to over 413, with 3,551 wounded since April 15, according to figures from Sudanese officials. Experts believe the real toll is higher. Meanwhile, there are over an estimated 16,000 United States citizens registered in Sudan, as the U.S. military completed an emergency evacuation of embassy personnel late Saturday night.

Washington Examiner

Ron DeSantis promises to boycott Bud Light before admitting he prefers LGBTQ+-friendly Guinness

DeSantis said that Bud Light “lost a customer” and then admitted he doesn’t even drink it.

LGBTQ Nation

A New Bill Seeks to Ban Trans Athletes from All School Sports

On Thursday, April 20, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that proposes to ban trans athletes from women’s and girls’ sports across the nation. While the legislative fight over trans rights has largely played out on the state level, this is the first anti-trans bill to pass the US House.

The bill, HR 734, has been named the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, with opponents calling it the Politics Over Participation Act. It seeks to amend Title IX—the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education—in order to define sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” If passed, the bill would apply to federally funded public K-12 schools and universities in every state.

Surprising no one, the bill comes out of Florida, via Republican Rep Gregory Steube. The bill passed with a 219-203 vote along party lines, with 13 representatives abstaining.

Into

Florida town cancels annual Gay Pride parade as DeSantis set to sign anti-drag ban

ort St. Lucie’s “Pridefest” has been held for decades — until Republicans started to crack down on LGBTQ+ freedoms

Salon

President Biden leads charge to protect LGBTQ rights as GOP legislates culture wars ahead of 2024

Two decades after Republicans stoked fears of gay marriage to drive conservative voters to the polls, another fight is brewing over LGBTQ rights as President Joe Biden gears up for what is expected to be a brutal reelection campaign. 

USA Today

Twitter quietly edited its hateful conduct policy to drop transgender protections

Earlier this month, Twitter quietly removed transgender-specific protections from its hateful conduct policy, drawing criticism from advocates who say there has been a spike in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric since Twitter CEO Elon Musk took over the platform last year.

Ars Technica

Black Boston Marathon Spectators Slam Police for ‘Racist’ Blockade

Members of the Pioneers Run Crew say while running in the Boston Marathon Monday, their cheer zone was blocked off by an overwhelming police presence, according to The Boston Herald. Supporters posted the scene to social media criticizing the officers for racist policing.

The Root

Redlining and Hotter Neighborhoods: How Racist Housing Policies Created Urban Heat Islands

All of us will experience some effects of climate change, but the burdens won’t be felt equally. Marginalized communities are more likely to experience the worst effects of climate change, especially if they live in low-income or vulnerable areas. For this reason, the United Nations considers climate change to be a “threat multiplier,” meaning that issues that already exist due to systemic injustice — such as gendered violence, economic inequality, a lack of resources, and fewer opportunities for leadership — are worsened by climate change. Contemporary biases certainly factor into this inequality, but discriminatory practices from our history also share the blame — even if they have officially been outlawed. 

Teen Vogue

Kansas City mayor slams the ‘fetishization’ of guns after shooting of Black teen

“We have this… fetishization of guns,” Lucas said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “More ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws, more laws that say you should use your gun and have it absolutely everywhere.”

“This was an 84-year-old man who went to sleep in one of the safest neighborhoods of Kansas City, but still had a loaded gun,” Lucas said, referring to Lester. “And when he heard a disturbance at his door, the first thing he thought to do wasn’t just to brandish, it wasn’t just even to say a word or scream at somebody who would be outside. It was to shoot, and to shoot twice.”

The Hill

Delaware becomes 22nd state to legalize recreational marijuana, despite governor’s opposition

Delaware Gov. John Carney on Friday said he would let bills to legalize marijuana and create a recreational industry become law without his signature, standing down from his opposition to recreational weed that put him at odds with his party.

USA Today

Azerbaijan sets up checkpoint on vital road to Armenia

The Lachin Corridor is the only route connecting Armenia to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Baku said it was responding to a similar move by Armenia.

Deutsche Welle

The Guardian view on Giorgia Meloni: normalising the radical right

Italy’s prime minister has navigated her first six months with disturbing success. But her government remains a threat to core European values

The Guardian

Chile Moves to Nationalize Lithium Production as China Outmaneuvers America for Sources of Critical Mineral

Beijing has a ‘serious first mover advantage’ over the lithium production in the hemisphere, analysts warn.

The New York Sun

Netanyahu says he would be willing to meet with DeSantis during governor’s trip to Israel

sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would be willing to meet with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) when the governor makes his trip to Israel, which is expected this week as DeSantis makes his domestic and international rounds ahead of an expected White House campaign.

The Hill

Sudan updates: German forces launch evacuation operation

The German military, the Bundeswehr, has begun evacuation operations in Khartoum, according to the German Defense Ministry.

“The defense and foreign ministries are coordinating together an ongoing evacuation operation for German nationals [in Sudan] in consultation with our partners,” the ministry said in a tweet.

“Our aim is to fly out as many citizens from Khartoum as possible in this dangerous situation. As far as possible we will also take EU and other citizens with us,” the ministry added.

Deutsche Welle

New Ukraine positions near Kherson could signal spring offensive – report

Thinktank says infiltration into area east of Dnipro River could be first step toward trying to dislodge Russian forces

The Guardian