Juneteenth 2023: The True Story Behind Our Newest Federal Holiday

The Root is doing a deep-dive on all things Juneteenth this year. Here’s how the Texan-based celebration began.

The Root

No One Ever Made the Case for Reparations Better Than Reagan

In 1988, Ronald Reagan made a heartfelt case for payments combining restitution and reparations without fearing he would lose his credentials as a political conservative.

The Daily Beast

Federal judge blocks much of Indiana’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors

A federal judge issued an order Friday stopping an Indiana ban on puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors from taking effect as scheduled July 1.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sought the temporary injunction in its legal challenge of the Republican-backed law, which was enacted this spring amid a national push by GOP-led legislatures to curb LGBTQ+ rights.

ABC 7

Michigan man charged with threatening synagogue massacre

A 19-year-old Michigan man has been charged with threatening a mass killing at a synagogue on the fifth anniversary of the massacre at two New Zealand mosques by a white supremacist gunman, federal officials say.

Politico

Will visit by US’ top diplomat help avoid potential war?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in China today as increasing tensions over Taiwan make the lack of communication between Washington and Beijing more dangerous than ever.

Deutsche Welle

Esper: Trump known as ‘hoarder’ of classified documents

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday said former President Trump has been described as a “hoarder” of classified documents, in the wake of Trump facing federal charges over his alleged mishandling of some of the nation’s top secrets.

Presented with suggestions both that Trump kept the documents “like a child with a toy” and that he kept them for financial or power reasons, Esper said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he thinks “both theories could be true and likely are true to some extent.”

The Hill

Can a president pardon himself?

“The big unanswered question is whether the president might be able to pardon himself,” Jeffrey Crouch, an assistant professor of American politics at American University and an expert on executive clemency. “No president has ever tried it, so we don’t know what the result would be if it was attempted.”

CBS News

‘Historic and significant’: key lawyer’s verdict on Alabama supreme court ruling

Deuel Ross, who argued the voting rights case Allen v Milligan before the court, discusses the significance of the 5-4 decision

The Guardian

L.A. Latinos welcome 42 migrants bused from Texas as ‘brothers and sisters’

“Getting here was a surprise. I thought I would have been deported,” said Miguel Ángel, who is living in a shelter downtown and whom The Times is identifying only by his first name because of his undocumented status. “I just got here … and I already found a job, so I’m happy. I already cashed my check and sent a part to my family.”

LA Times

Miami’s Francis Suarez bucking history as he tries to become first sitting mayor elected president

In a 2024 Republican presidential field full of long-shot candidates, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez may be — on paper anyway — the longest long shot of all.

No sitting mayor has ever been elected U.S. president, a job that historically has been won by governors, vice presidents, senators or Cabinet secretaries. Some former mayors have become commander in chief, but only after serving in higher-profile positions.

AP News

Chris Christie looks askance at Republican loyalty pledge

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie made it clear Sunday he didn’t think much of the requirement that the 2024 GOP contenders agree to support the eventual party nominee in order to appear on the debate stage.

“I’m going to take the pledge just as seriously as Donald Trump took it in 2016,” the former New Jersey governor said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Politico

Nominating Trump Could Lose North Carolina For Republicans, But His Fans Don’t Care

Trump’s margin of victory there in 2020 was less than half what it was in 2016, and that was before his coup attempt and his indictments.

Huffpost

What presidential candidates are saying about America’s crumbling infrastructure

A year after the legislation’s signing, the White House said the bill had implemented “$185 billion in funding and over 6,900 specific projects, reaching over 4,000 communities across all 50 states, D.C., and the territories.” Despite this, accidents such as the I-95 collapse show that aging infrastructure remains a significant hurdle in the United States. With the 2024 election just a year and a half away, what is President Biden, along with the major GOP candidates, pledging to do about infrastructure in the next four years?

The Week

Here’s a look at Florida’s new immigration law that takes effect in two weeks

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a legislative package on immigration that will begin to take effect on July 1st. The legislation, SB1718 targets undocumented immigrants in the state, and is meant to discourage immigration into Florida. The Miami Herald found the law has created a climate of fear among undocumented workers in the state, as well as among employers.

Miami Herald

California governor proposes rolling back access to police misconduct records

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has proposed an end to public disclosure of investigations of abusive and corrupt police officers, handing the responsibility instead to local agencies in an effort to help cover an estimated $31.5 billion budget deficit.

The proposal, part of the governor’s budget package that he is still negotiating with the Legislature, has prompted strong criticism from a coalition of criminal justice and press freedom groups, which spent years pushing for the disclosure rules that were part of a landmark law Newsom signed in 2021.

AP News

Biden says rich must ‘pay their share’ at first reelection campaign rally

President Joe Biden delivered an unapologetically economic populist message Saturday during the first rally of his reelection campaign, telling an exuberant crowd of union members that his policies had created jobs and lifted the middle class. Now, he said, is the time for the wealthy to “pay their fair share” in taxes.

NPR

Judge gives Enbridge 3 years to close oil pipeline on tribal land in Wisconsin

A federal judge has given Enbridge three years to shut down parts of an oil pipeline that crosses reservation land and ordered the energy company to pay a Native American tribe more than $5 million for trespassing.

Friday’s order from U.S. District Judge William Conley came after members of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa told him during a hearing in Madison that the Enbrige Line 5 pipeline is at immediate risk of being exposed by erosion and rupturing on their land.

CBS News

Greg Abbott Axes Water For Texas Construction Workers Amid 3-Digit Temperatures

As his state faced a dangerous heat wave this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a broad new law that will nullify a wide range of local regulations, including mandated water breaks for construction workers, beginning Sept. 1, according to The Texas Tribune.

The new Republican-backed law strips the ability of local municipalities to enact certain regulations in favor of state authority, ostensibly to “provide statewide consistency.” It covers a wide range, including other worker protections, environmental protections, housing protections and more.

Huffpost

More Republicans want to take the fight to Mexico’s cartels. Experts say it’s a bad idea.

A fringe idea to directly take on the Mexican cartels with the U.S. military is gaining some traction in the Republican party — even as critics warn that any unilateral action would endanger relations with Mexico and fail to alleviate the flow of drugs across the border.

The Hill

Muslim-led city bans Pride flags on public property, sparking a debate on discrimination and religious expression

The city of Hamtramck, Michigan, has banned LGBTQ+ flags from all publicly owned flagpoles, The Associated Press reported.

The decision, announced in a lengthy council meeting, sparked a debate around discrimination and religious expression in the city, which elected a Muslim-majority council in 2015 — the first city in the US to do so, per The Guardian.

Business Insider

Unlikely crusade: Are Muslim immigrants joining the anti-LGBTQ right? Yes and no

Over the last two weeks, a series of contentious and even violent LGBTQ Pride month protests, from Southern California to suburban Maryland to Ottawa to Calgary, have given rise to a new hope on the right: Has the push for LGBTQ rights and representation so badly alienated immigrant and Muslim communities that these generally liberal or left-leaning constituencies are switching sides? Across social and right-wing media, conservative pundits and activists have trumpeted that claim. “The Arab community is sending a message to the woke that they are not accepting this!” “Selling immigrants on hating liberals would be the easiest thing in the world.” “The Crusade nobody saw coming. Muslims, Christians, and Atheists vs. Pro-Child Mutilation groomers.” 

Salon

The New Republican Voters

A Muslim man went to a school board meeting last fall. He left supporting Donald Trump.

Slate

Minneapolis Is Quietly Trying to Throw Out the Lawsuit Against the Cop Who Killed Amir Locke

Just as the mayor publicly says he’s serious about reforming a racist police department.

Mother Jones

Planned Parenthood Is a Target of Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories Dating Back Decades

Conspiracy theories around abortion have been part of the mainstream political discourse and government policy since the 1970s. While abortion is a safe, routine, health-care procedure that an estimated one in four American women will have in their lifetime, spreading falsehoods about how it works and the providers who make it possible is a means of raising suspicion about and undermining public support for the procedure. The most destructive conspiracies exploit racist and antisemitic tensions. And all of them threaten the safety of doctors, clinic workers, and patients. Experts say that Planned Parenthood’s national footprint has made the organization a particular lightning rod for right-wing conspiracies and disinformation. 

Teen Vogue

Police and protesters injured in clashes at French-Italian tunnel site

A dozen police officers and several protesters were injured Saturday in clashes at the construction site of an Alpine railway tunnel connecting France and Italy.

Around 2,000 police were mobilized to the site to face more than 3,000 people protesting the 57-kilometer tunnel project that will connect the French city of Lyon with Turin in Italy upon completion, France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said.

An organization called “Uprisings of the Earth” had called for the demonstration.

CNN

Ukraine takes village on Zaporizhzhia front, Russia-appointed official says

Ukraine has captured the village of Piatykhatky on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia front, according to a Russia-appointed official and sources, the first village recaptured by Kyiv’s forces in nearly a week.

The Guardian

Austria: Police foil attack at Vienna Pride, arrest three

Austrian police seized weapons after executing a search warrant at the homes of the three people arrested. The suspects were aged between 14 and 20.

Deutsche Welle

Israeli government gives settler minister control over West Bank settlement planning

Israel’s government on Sunday granted a pro-settlement firebrand authority over planning in the occupied West Bank and lifted red tape on the settlement housing approval process.

The changes make it easier for Israel to expand its settlements on land the Palestinians seek as the heartland of their future state, at a time when hopes for peace are more distant than ever.

AP News

Iraq: displays 2,800-year-old stone tablet returned by Italy

A 2,800-year-old stone tablet has gone on display in Iraq after being returned by Italy following nearly four decades.

BBC

Brazil wears all-black kit for the first time in its history as part of team’s anti-racism campaign

The Brazilian men’s national team wore an all-black kit for the first time in its 109-year history during a friendly match against Guinea in Spain on Saturday as part of the team’s anti-racism campaign.

CNN

Nicola Sturgeon: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’

Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said “I’ve done nothing wrong” as she returned home for the first time following her arrest last Sunday.

The Guardian

Tunisia protesters demand ‘political’ prisoners’ freedom

Hundreds of supporters of Tunisia’s main opposition coalition on Sunday rallied to demand freedom for about 20 detained personalities and opponents of President Kais Saied.

The New Arab

China and Germany to hold high-level talks in Berlin

Consultations between Germany and China used to demonstrate partnership. But rifts have emerged over China’s “rock-solid” friendship with Russia, tensions with Taiwan and repression of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.

Deutsche Welle

Spain’s PM warns of far-right danger after PP strikes coalition deals

Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned of the dangers of allowing far-right ideology to seep into the political mainstream after the conservative People’s party (PP) struck a series of coalition deals with the radical right Vox party ahead of next month’s general election.

The Guardian