Inside the Historic Lesbian Cafes That Fed the Feminist Movement

From Mother Courage’s solidarity with local farmers, to the revolutionary sign-up sheet outside the Brick Hut Cafe, lesbian cafes have a long history of seeding revolution.

them

People are leaving Texas over rising costs, partisan politics, and a sense of disenchantment

“Lifelong Texan here. I am definitely preparing an exit strategy,” one anonymous user posted on a Reddit thread about leaving Texas. “From the heat to the stripping away of human rights, I’m just done.”

Another poster struck a similar chord. “I’ve been in Texas most of my life, and my husband and I were always planning on retiring here (in about 5 years from now),” they wrote. “But between this intense heat, crazy politics, and cost of living, we’ve decided to leave for good and head to Knoxville.”

Business Insider

Debate Emerges Over Inclusion Of Illinois Black Panther Party In National Register Of Historic Places

The Illinois chapter’s history with the party could be included in the National Register of Historic Places.

Black Enterprise

Native Americans from the Dakotas were brought to Des Plaines in 1880s in ill-fated assimilation effort

For many, steam rising from turkeys fresh out the oven last week evoked images of the Pilgrims. Schoolchildren learn that the origin of American democracy is the Mayflower Compact by which the Pilgrims pledged themselves to self-governance.

Less is said in classrooms and by television’s talking heads about the experience of Native Americans in the years since they were at that first Thanksgiving.

Chicago Tribune

Transgender deaths in US on rise with increase in anti-trans laws, report shows

Notably, while these numbers from the National Center for Transgender Equality’s (NCTE) annual remembrance report have grown since last year, some experts say that the real number of lives lost is probably higher due to the difficulties in accurate reporting and data within the trans community.

“It is no coincidence that we are seeing anti-trans violence rise at the same time as we’re seeing anti-trans legislation rise,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the executive director at the NCTE. “Every year from 2020 to today, we have broken the record … of anti-transgender bills ever introduced.”

The Guardian

Hmong New Year traditions in the U.S. recall ancestral spirits while teaching new generations

During new year, which is celebrated mostly in November and December among Hmong Americans, shamans send off their spirit guides to regenerate their energy for another season of healing. Male heads of households who embrace traditional animist practices perform soul-calling ceremonies, venerate ancestor spirits and invoke the protection of good spirits.

PBS

Conservatives Are Boycotting Froot Loops for Creating a Library of Diverse Children’s Books Online

Conservatives have set their sights on Froot Loops and its parent company Kellogg’s as the next product worthy of a boycott all because the company has offered children with a voracious appetite for sugary cereal and knowledge access to a free digital library. In Canada, Froot Loops boxes include access to an online repository of “free diversity and inclusion content,” according to a website dedicated to the initiative. The library is available through a partnership between Froot Loops and BGC Canada, a national nonprofit aimed at promoting children’s social welfare.

them

How election officials are planning to avoid a repeat of 2020’s slow vote count

Several battleground states have made changes to quicken the vote count — but some, most notably Pennsylvania, still lag behind.

Politico

Dem voters urge Wisconsin Supreme Court to strike down ‘unconstitutional’ maps

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will soon make a decision on whether to strike down state Republican-drawn maps that Democratic voters argue discriminate against them, including Black voters in the state.

The Grio

This Wisconsin county has voted for the winning presidential candidate since 1996, one of the longest such streaks in the country

Door County has a habit of making itself stand out among the state’s 72 counties, backing the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1996, one of the longest such streaks in the country. From Bill Clinton’s reelection bid to George W. Bush’s bids in 2000 and 2004, and followed by Barack Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012, the county has been, for nearly 28 years, one of the most accurate predictors of who will win the presidency.

Business Insider

Pardo wins Miami District 2 race, becoming city’s first gay commissioner

Damian Pardo won the runoff for Miami’s District 2 seat, beating incumbent Sabina Covo and becoming the city’s first openly-gay commissioner, unofficial election night results showed. He led Covo by more than 250 votes, with all precincts reporting.

Miami Herald

Republicans want to pair border security with aid for Ukraine. Here’s why that makes a deal so tough

Republicans in both chambers of Congress have made clear that they will not support additional aid for Ukraine unless it is paired with border security measures to help manage the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their demand has injected one of the most contentious issues in American politics into a foreign policy debate that was already difficult.

AP News

The Troubling History Behind Modern Thanksgiving Celebrations

Ahead of Thanksgiving, I speak with Professor Anne Blue Wills about the invention of the holiday as we know it today. In her article “Pilgrims and Progress: How Magazines Made Thanksgiving,” and in conversation, Professor Wills chronicles how 19th-century women’s magazines — and one magazine editor, in particular — created contemporary Thanksgiving.

Teen Vogue

‘A bit of a clown’: a look at Congressman George Santos’s endless fabrications

In a way, George Santos is one of the great success stories of American politics.

The New York congressman is not responsible for exceptional legislative achievements. His brief tenure in Congress will not be held up as a success story for students of political history.

Santos’s accomplishment has instead been to win election by weaving a staggering, barely believable web of lies, deception and deceit that is surely unmatched in the modern age.

The Guardian

George Santos and the lesson of what happens when lying becomes a way of life

2023 was a season of chaos in the House of Representatives, a cartoon of what a legislative body is supposed to be. Through it all, we’ve had a mascot for the messiness, and his name is George Santos.

CBS News

No one’s promising you can keep your doctor anymore

Democrats and Republicans agree that the primary care system needs an overhaul. They’re encouraging nurses to do more and embracing virtual care.

Politico

Regular Disorder: How Congress broke itself, caused chaos and misery, and why it may not be possible to go back ever again.

The past year has been a fiasco in the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House took weeks to secure the votes needed to take office and survived a few months before being unceremoniously ejected from his position, which led to a month of legislative time being squandered as a series of would-be Speakers failed to win over enough Republicans to bag the job. 

At the same time, the body has seen a wave of early retirements, with young backbenchers becoming increasingly frustrated by the contours of the job, the constant need to fundraise, and the utter inability of everyday members to influence policy. 

These situations are not coincidences.

Business Insider

Most Americans Don’t Want States Able to Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids

A progressive poll found most voters don’t believe state legislatures have the right to ban abortion or gender-affirming care.

The Data For Progress think tank surveyed more than 1,200 voters nationwide and found most people believe decisions on those personal health decisions should be guided by medical professionals, not elected lawmakers.

But the key finding was that 55 percent of voters believe “state lawmakers should not be allowed to implement full bans on abortion and gender-affirming medical care, and place criminal penalties on physicians who provide this care. By comparison, just 34 percent believe those restrictions do fall under the purview of politicians.

Advocate

9 key races that could land Democrats the House majority in 2024

While Democrats are playing defense with the White House and the Senate — where the Democratic majority faces a difficult 2024 map to hold on to the upper chamber — the party thinks it can go on offense in the House and retake the gavel.

To do so, Democrats almost certainly will have to make gains in New York and California, two states where the party has some optimism it can retake ground lost in the past.

The Hill

Fights over the IRS, border security stall wartime aid to Israel and Ukraine

Despite the urgency that gripped Capitol Hill following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel in early October and longstanding bipartisan support for Ukraine, President Joe Biden’s emergency request for foreign aid has met hurdles in the House and Senate over how to move forward.

Both houses are wrangling over issues including Israel’s war in Gaza, funding sources for the requested aid, and immigration reform, with no clear path to an agreement.

USA Today

Why is the US ramping up production of plutonium ‘pits’ for nuclear weapons?

The Pentagon is concerned about the the US nuclear arsenal’s viability, but critics worry about a renewed arms race

The Guardian

China demands more fever clinics amid pneumonia surge

China on Sunday told local authorities to increase the number of medical clinics that can handle a surge in respiratory illnesses in the country.

The call comes after China’s National Health Commission two weeks ago reported a large increase in pneumonia cases, mostly in children. 

The report triggered memories of the COVID-19 pandemic, with social media users fearing “a new virus coming from China,” or a “new COVID.”

Last week, the public disease surveillance system ProMED reported that some Chinese hospitals were “overwhelmed with sick children.”

This outbreak was said to be mainly in the capital, Beijing, but also in the northeastern Liaoning province and other areas in China.

Deutsche Welle

Thousands march against antisemitism in London

Organisers estimated 100,000 took part in the first march of its kind since the Israel-Gaza war began, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

BBC

Kuwait’s former defence minister sentenced to seven years for mishandling military funds

Sheikh Khalid al-Jarrah al-Sabah, a former Kuwaiti defence and interior minister, was given a seven-year jail sentenced for mishandling military funds, following the revival of a case brought against him and ex-PM Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Salah.

New Arab

China and US dispute over US warship in South China Sea

The United States and Chinese military have engaged in a verbal dispute regarding a U.S. naval vessel that sailed through the South China Sea over the weekend.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command said the Chinese military deployed its naval and air forces to “track, monitor and warn away” a U.S. Navy destroyer, while the U.S.’s 7th Fleet said the USS Hopper “asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law.”

Washington Examiner

Inside the World’s Most Dangerous Gang War

For the past two years, Haiti has experienced a reign of terror as rival outlaw bands battle in the streets of the capital with American assault rifles. The violence has led to a mass exodus of thousands of refugees fleeing to the United States border — and there’s no end in sight

Rolling Stone

South Korea, China, Japan chart course on trilateral summit

The foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan met in the South Korean port city of Busan on Sunday and agreed the three countries should hold a leaders’ summit at the earliest, mutually convenient time,” South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told reporters. 

“We agreed to expedite the necessary preparations,” he said after meeting his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, without providing a specific time frame. 

The three countries in 2008 had agreed to hold trilateral summits every year in order to improve regional cooperation. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, along strained bilateral relations between Japan and South Korea over historical disputes, have been stumbling blocks.

Deutsche Welle

Third round of hostages and prisoners released, Gaza truce could be extended

Hamas has released 14 Israeli hostages and three foreign nationals in exchange for Israel’s freeing of 39 Palestinian prisoners, officials reported, and the military stand down may be extended.

These people were on the third list of prisoners to be released by Hamas and Israel as a truce continued for the third day in Gaza, authorities said.

UPI

Russia moves to outlaw LGBTQ+ rights movement

Russian authorities have moved to outlaw the country’s LGBTQ+ rights movement, labeling it as “extremist.”

Earlier this month, the country’s Justice Ministry filed a lawsuit with the Russian Supreme Court aiming to ban what it called the “international LGBT public movement,” according to multiple media outlets. In a statement, authorities said that they had identified “signs and manifestations of extremist nature” including “incitement of social and religious discord” in the activities of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in Russia.

LGBTQ Nation

‘Heartbroken and devastated’: 4 dead, dozens injured after stampede breaks out at a concert in India

At least four people were killed and dozens more were injured in a stampede at a concert at a university in southern India.

The incident took place at Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala state on Saturday night, local officials said.

USA Today

Sierra Leone declares curfew, says repelled barracks attack

Sierra Leone’s government said on Sunday that unidentified gunmen attacked a military barracks and tried to break into an armory at the site in the capital, Freetown.

Deutsche Welle

Russia says it downed dozens of Moscow-bound Ukrainian drones after it struck Kyiv

Ukraine overnight tried to attack Moscow with dozens of drones, Russian authorities said Sunday, just a day after Ukrainian officials reported that Russia had launched its most intense drone attack on Kyiv since the beginning of its full-scale war in 2022.

NPR

Labour says it will aim to cut annual net migration to under 200,000

Darren Jones said the party would seek to return to ‘normal levels’ after the ONS reported a net migration record of 745,000 last year

The Telegraph

Italy rallies to condemn violence against women draw huge crowds

Tens of thousands of people have taken part in protests across Italy, calling for an end to violence against women following the murder of a university student earlier this month.

BBC