What Black Women Activists Want You to Know About Organizing for Reproductive Justice

January 22 would be the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, had the Supreme Court not overturned it in June 2022. Here, Black women weigh in on how they’re working to protect reproductive rights.

Teen Vogue

A father emotionally defends his transgender son against Missouri lawmakers

“It’s actually surprisingly easy to be a parent to a trans kid,” he said, in a video posted on Threads by The Recount. “The hard part — I mean it — the only hard part we have experienced is you all. The only hard part of having a trans kid is this sense that my government just won’t leave us alone. That we have to come back here again and again and fight just for his basic human dignity.”

Advocate

Biden abortion ad marks campaign shift to emphasize reproductive rights

The Biden re-election campaign rolled out a new campaign ad Sunday, signaling a shift in emphasis to reproductive rights that the White House hopes will carry and define Democrats through the 2024 election cycle.

The campaign ad, titled Forced, is designed to tie Donald Trump directly to the abortion issue almost 18 months after his nominees to the supreme court helped to overturn a constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v Wade, which would have turned 51 this week.

The Guardian

House Democrats grow frustrated passing short-term bills to fund government

“This isn’t something that used to be that complicated. We used to be able to pass continuing resolutions on a regular basis,” said U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md.

The Grio

The most hotly contested GOP primary isn’t for president. It’s for VP.

Forget about Tuesday’s primary. The only real campaign in New Hampshire these days is the high-stakes surrogate battle over who should be Donald Trump’s No. 2.

Politico

Bishop Gene Robinson on why “God called me out of the closet”

As the Episcopal Church consecrated Gene Robinson the 9th bishop of New Hampshire in November 2003, he wore the customary vestments. He was also wearing a bullet-proof vest. What made the occasion controversial, indeed historic, was the Church’s acceptance of Gene Robinson as the first openly-gay bishop in all of Christendom.

CBS News

Marvel’s Echo Star Alaqua Cox Is Breaking Down Hollywood Barriers

“It feels f*cking awesome to be part of this historical moment; I love proving people wrong,” she tells Teen Vogue. “I’m so happy that Indigenous people are showing our authentic stories and breaking down barriers. I grew up never seeing myself represented on the screen. I’m excited for audiences — kids especially — to see people like me with different disabilities or diversities on TV so that they understand they are beautiful just the way they are.”

Teen Vogue

Texas gov transforms immigration from a border issue to a backyard one. Dems aren’t happy

More than half of Americans in a recent USA TODAY/Suffolk poll said they support the idea of sending troops to the southern border and ordering the mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Only 43% said they opposed both and 4% were undecided. 

Abbott’s controversial migrant busing program crossed a threshold this month: Operation Lone Star has bused more than 100,000 migrants from the Texas border to Washington, New York, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. 

Democratic leaders of the cities Abbott has targeted are pushing back against what they say are his “cruel” tactics. But they’re also complaining about too many immigrants arriving in their communities.  

USA Today

Biden administration allocates $700,000 to sex-ed program for trans boys

Trans teenage boys are just as likely to get pregnant as cisgender girls, but sex-ed programs don’t speak to them.

LGBTQ Nation

Keeping the faith in a presidential election: Does it only take a song and dance to get the Black vote?

Sometimes, all it takes is for our political leaders to sing like us, play an instrument like us, eat like us, or do anything even mildly referencing our culture, and they get our vote — and a free pass to the cookout.

At least, that’s what seems to be the standard when politicians visit our faith communities at pivotal times to engage with our “Black church” culture. Hear us out: We know we are in full campaign swing when politicians show up to Black spaces and pull out a Negro spiritual or congregational song that completely hijacks our religiocultural wiring. Many of us fall for it; we participate by screaming and shouting in response or planking our bodies without any physical resistance. With our affirmations and acquiescence, we often give these visitors an “A” for effort without making them actually work for our benefit.

The Grio

97-year-old lesbian baller Maybelle Blair on heaven, progress, and the Cubs

At the Tribeca Film Festival in June of last year, while promoting the series, Blair made headlines by coming out as a lesbian at the age of 95. She said the response to her revelation has been wonderful. “I never expected that I would get the response that I did, especially from so many straight people. No one turned against me, and I was afraid that my family might, but it never happened. I’m thrilled about it and so happy that people in this day and age realize that gay people have hearts filled with love, and that we are part of the world, and part of everyday life with the lives that we lead.”

Advocate

An ‘Execute-Them-At-Any-Cost Mentality’: The Supreme Court’s New, Bloodthirsty Era

The death penalty survived decades of decline. Now it’s back, thanks to capital punishment-prone prosecutors and a compliant Supreme Court.

Politico

Gen Z Voters Say They Are Opting Out of the 2024 Election

The first time Elias voted, it was 2016, when he reported to an elementary school polling place near his college campus. He was proud to cast his vote and perform what he saw then as his civic duty. For the upcoming election, however, Elias says he isn’t going to cast a vote for president, partly to send a message to Democrats, who he believes don’t take their voters’ preferences into account. “I think power is a language that they understand, and by refusing to put them into power, we’re forcing them to listen to us,” he explains. “They can’t… plug their ears and turn their heads away.”

Zach, a political science major from Florida, views the act of voting as unequivocally important. But the same can’t be said for some of his friends, he tells Teen Vogue, who feel like their vote doesn’t matter. Part of that narrative is the fact that Florida, which used to be considered a swing state, has given its Electoral College votes to a Republican candidate in every election cycle since 2000, other than Obama’s wins in 2008 and 2012. When Zach talks to some of his friends about voting, they say it’s a waste of time because they feel like the winner has already been decided.

Teen Vogue

Transgender candidate facing disqualification in Ohio now cleared to run despite omitting deadname

Childrey, who legally changed her name in 2020, has said she would have provided her deadname — the name a transgender person was assigned at birth but does not align with their gender identity — if she had known about the law.

“I would have filled out whatever was necessary, because at the end of the day, while it would have been a hit to my pride, there is something much more important than my pride, and that’s fighting for this community,” Childrey said.

AP News

How accurate are political polls?

And how much should you read into figures ahead of the 2024 election?

The Week

Trump weighs in on border security deal, adding new pressure to Republicans in Congress

Former President Donald Trump is trying to torpedo a bipartisan border security package, putting new pressure on Republicans to reject a deal that Senate negotiators have been crafting for months.

It’s the latest example of the former president leveraging his popularity within the GOP to influence Republican officeholders – even as he lacks any formal powers to set the political agenda. If Trump openly campaigns against it, Republicans will have a hard time supporting the border security deal that is now favored by many senators in their own party.

USA Today

What branch of government is ‘really’ responsible for the crisis at the border?

Immigration is the responsibility of the federal government, and the U.S. political system is set up so that each branch checks and balances the other. This makes it difficult to blame only one branch.

Austin-American Statesman

Hundreds of Companies Legally Pay Disabled Workers Below Minimum Wage. This Needs to Change

When we think of how oppression operates in a legal sense, we may look to institutional imagery, such as the Supreme Court or the suppression of protests, but when it comes to income and employment inequality for disabled people, it’s an excel spreadsheet that we see.

The document in question includes a list of organizations and businesses that have or intend to have a section 14(c) certificate. This certificate, if approved, means these employers — some of them positioning themselves as inclusive workplaces — can pay certain disabled people, often those with intellectual disabilities, below minimum wage.

Teen Vogue

Lauren Boebert switched districts in a bid to stay in Congress. Winning over voters won’t be easy

Fleeing a tough reelection bid in the district where she lives, Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert is moving from the mountains to the plains, in the hopes of finding conservative pastures green enough to salvage her place in Congress.

AP News

What the conspiracy theory about Nikki Haley’s citizenship is really about

There’s a common thread among those whom Trump has accused of not being natural-born citizens: Obama was the country’s first black president; Haley, an Indian-American, would be the country’s first South Asian president if she somehow finds a path to victory; and had he won in 2016, Cruz would’ve been the first Cuban-American president.

Vox

Senior Biden adviser to visit Egypt, Qatar for Gaza hostage talks

Senior Biden administration adviser Brett McGurk will travel to Egypt and Qatar this week for talks aimed at advancing discussions related to Israel’s war on Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas, according to media reports on Sunday.

The New Arab

Donetsk: Deadly blast hits market in Russia-held Ukraine city, officials say

At least 27 people have been killed in a shelling attack in the Russian-held city of Donetsk, the Moscow-installed leader of the region says.

BBC

Muslim religious leaders trained in Germany

Germany has seen an increase in the number of Imams who grew up in Germany and completed their religious training here. Muslim associations across the country are seeing a generational change and a general reorientation.

Deutsche Welle

Iran vows revenge after Israeli attack on Damascus

Israel has killed Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) military officials in a missile strike on Damascus early on January 20, according to Iranian and Syrian media.

Intellinews

Britons urged to use Holocaust Memorial Day as moment for community cohesion

A cross-party trio of politicians from Muslim and Palestinian backgrounds have jointly urged Britons to use this month’s Holocaust Memorial Day as a moment for community cohesion and not to allow differences over the war in Gaza to inflame tensions.

The Guardian

Gaza’s death toll surpasses 25,000, Health Ministry says, as ongoing Hamas war divides Israelis

The Palestinian death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas has soared past 25,000, said the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, while the Israeli government appeared far from achieving its goals of crushing the militant group and freeing more than 100 hostages.

CBS News

Saudi Arabia-Israel peace cannot happen without path to Palestinian state – FM

De-escalation of the conflict in Gaza and halting civilian deaths is a key focus of Saudi Arabia, the minister said.

Jerusalem Post

Netanyahu again rejects Palestinian sovereignty amid fresh US push for two-state solution

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday rejected calls for Palestinian sovereignty following talks with US President Joe Biden on post-war Gaza.

Netanyahu saidIsrael’s need for security control over all territory west of Jordan is incompatible with the existence of a Palestinian state.

“I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan – and this is contrary to a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

CNN

Explosion causes large fire at Russian gas terminal after suspected Ukrainian drone strike

A fire broke out at a Baltic Sea terminal belonging to Novatek, Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas producer.

It comes after a suspected Ukrainian drone attack, forcing the company to suspend some operations there.

GB News

President Sisi says Egypt will not allow any threat to Somalia or its security

Egypt’s president said on Sunday it will not allow any threat to Somalia, after Ethiopia said it would consider recognising an independence claim by Somaliland in a deal that would give it access to a sea port.

The remarks by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi were the strongest yet made on the issue by Egypt, which already has frosty relations with Ethiopia, and were a sign that Cairo may get involved in a dispute that has raised fresh tensions in the volatile Horn of Africa.

The New Arab

Two opposition leaders in Senegal are excluded from the final list of presidential candidates

Senegal’s highest election authority has excluded two top opposition leaders from the final list of candidates for the West African nation’s presidential election next month. The party of the main challenger called the move a “dangerous precedent” on Sunday.

AP News

AfD: Germans float ban on elected far-right party after scandal

Germany is wrestling with a potentially explosive debate over whether to ban the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD.

BBC

Germany sees second day of large protests against far right

The weekend of protests against right-wing extremism continued in Germany, as tens of thousands took to the streets on Sunday, with the largest protests likely to be in Berlin.

Deutsche Welle

The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals

Jacob Armstrong, the shipping policy manager for the Brussels-based sustainable transport advocacy organization Transport & Environment, calculated the extra emissions produced by one such cargo ship, the Al Zubara, which is currently taking the long route from the European port of Rotterdam to China. According to Armstrong, the Al Zubara would normally produce 7,841 metric tons of CO2 going through the Suez Canal. Now diverted around South Africa, it will emit 10,360 tons of CO2, at an increase of 2,519 tons, which is the equivalent of burning 13.9 rail cars’ worth of coal. (Sequestering that amount of carbon would require 41,652 tree seedlings to grow for 10 years).

Time

Israeli hostage deal not imminent as rift on post-war Gaza deepens

The possibility of another hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas does not appear to be imminent, even as questions emerge about the post-war plans for Gaza.

Washington Examiner