Haley says she no longer feels bound by the GOP pledge requiring her to support the eventual nominee

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday she no longer feels bound by a pledge that required all GOP contenders to support the party’s eventual nominee in order to participate in the primary debates.

AP News

Federal investigation announced into bullying claims in death of Nex Benedict

The education department said it will launch an inquiry after the non-binary teen died after a fight at an Oklahoma public school

The Guardian

Trump tried to crush the ‘DEI revolution.’ Here’s how he might finish the job.

Led by the Heritage Foundation think tank, which has helped mold the policies of Republican administrations since the Reagan presidency, conservative interests have drawn up a sweeping plan known as Project 2025 in anticipation of Trump’s return to power. Part of that agenda goes after the decades-long corporate drive to increase racial diversity in cubicles and executive suites. 

USA Today

Because of the Black Civil Rights Struggle, These Groups Saw Progress Too

Through nonviolent protests and other forms of civil disobedience, the Civil Rights Movement was a decade’s long effort to make racial discrimination, disenfranchisement and inequality illegal across the country.

But the efforts of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King and John Lewis didn’t just work to help African Americans. They served as inspiration to women, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities and others. And their actions provided a blueprint to help them move their causes forward as well.

The Root

First federal hate crime trial over gender identity shows glaring failure to protect LGBTQ+ victims

The historic prosecution nearly five years after Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe’s death granted the woman and her loved ones, who celebrated the guilty verdict on social media, justice via the legal system that trans and gender non-conforming Americans don’t often receive. But experts caution that, in the current social and cultural climate, the trial is not enough. 

Salon

Groups file request asking Alabama Supreme Court to rehear embryo ruling

Groups representing defendants in the lawsuits that culminated in the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children have filed an application asking the court to rehear the case, according to court records.

CNN

Thousands of protesters march in downtown Los Angeles calling for cease-fire in Gaza

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday as part of a worldwide day of action calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

LA Times

Downstate congressional race highlights the GOP’s hard move to the right

Ryan Burge, a professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said he sees the primaries as “endemic of what’s going on in the Republican Party. The Republican Party’s gone rogue.”

“I think these votes are indicative of how we think about the future of America. Not to get too hyperbolic, but is the American experiment over? I think we’re really teetering on the brink of that question,” Burge said.

“If Bailey wins, I just think it’s more evidence that the American public is so pissed off about their station in life that they’d rather burn the whole thing down than stick with business as usual. And, I don’t think they fully realize the ramifications of destroying all the institutions that made America what it is. So really, that’s the referendum,” he said.

Chicago Tribune

Super Tuesday’s dominance highlights how presidential selection process can exclude many US voters

As an independent, Christian Miller can’t vote in Pennsylvania’s closed presidential primary in April. He said it wouldn’t matter even if he could.

“You’re not really voting for anything,” said Miller, who left the Democratic Party in 2022. “Every election I’ve ever seen, the candidates have been decided by the time they get to Pennsylvania.”

AP News

Trump confuses Obama for Biden again at Virginia rally speech

Richmond crowd reportedly went silent as 77-year-old mixed up the president and ex-president for third time in past six months

The Guardian

Elon Musk quietly reinstates X’s ban on deadnaming & misgendering

The social media platform X has been a dumpster fire ever since Elon Musk took over in 2022, but things got infinitely worse for the transgender community when he quietly axed a policy protecting against misgendering and deadnaming.

Now, 10 months later, the policy has been just as quietly reinstated. In fact, it was done so secretively that no one noticed for close to a month until Ars Technica reported on the change.

Pride

Democrats Step Up Calls for Biden to Rein In Israel’s War

Democratic senators called on President Joe Biden to press Israel for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, citing recent deaths of Palestinian civilians in its war with Hamas and what they portrayed as a lagging US response to the humanitarian crisis.

“This killing has to stop, of the innocent people there,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said on CNN’s State of the Union. “The medical situation on the ground there is horrible, horrible.”

Bloomberg

Neither Party, It Seems, Cares About the Hollowing Out of America’s Industrial Heartland

We are heading once again into an election where very few people at Washington truly understand how remarkably devastating factory closures are.

The New York Sun

Why Republicans are fighting the basic-income programs many cities and states are adopting: ‘Is money a birthright now?’

Business Insider reached out to politicians leading efforts to prohibit these programs. Most did not respond to a request for comment. State Rep. John Gillette, a lawmaker in Arizona, told BI that GBI programs are “socialist” and a “killer for the economy.”

“Is money a birthright now? Do we just get born and get money from the government? Because I think the Founding Fathers would say that is very contrary to our capitalist system and encouraging people to work,” Gillette said.

Business Insider

How You Can Make Bathrooms Safer for Trans and Nonbinary People

Being an ally is not complicated — but can have a big impact in interrupting discrimination.

them

Donald Trump accomplished what he needed from his Texas border visit. But did Joe Biden?

On his visit to the Texas border, Donald trip didn’t get a game-changing moment, but didn’t need one. Joe Biden needed one, but didn’t get it.

Austin American Statesman

Barbara Lee’s idealism inspires loyalty in her district. Can it carry her to the Senate?

The progressive congresswoman doesn’t have the funds of her opponents, but she has ‘a record of being on the right side’

The Guardian

Judge blocks Texas from collecting info on transgender children receiving gender-affirming care

A Texas judge on Friday temporarily blocked state Attorney General Ken Paxton from forcing an LGBTQ+ advocacy group to hand over information about transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care.

AP News

Young Israeli-Americans return from battle to take up their next fight on Capitol Hill

Benaya Cherlow put himself at the forefront of the effort to do what he said his government has not: reach out to Democrats, without giving up. 

Jerusalem Post

Biden has to ‘go on the offense’ on immigration and not let Republicans ‘divide us,’ Sen. Murphy say

“The vast majority of the country believes that we should have robust legal immigration but they want tighter control of the border. And right now, there’s only one party that can deliver that — only the Democrats support pathways to citizenship, support expanding legal pathways into the country and a tough border law,” Murphy, a Connecticut lawmaker, told ABC News “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

ABC News

Jill Biden says Trump ‘dangerous to women’ in Tucson speech interrupted by Gaza protests

First lady Jill Biden, in Tucson on Saturday, blasted Republican efforts to restrict abortion in a speech that was punctuated by protests over U.S. support of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

USA Today

How Israel Quietly Crushed Early American Jewish Dissent on Palestine

“Our Palestine Question,” an explosive new book by Geoffrey Levin, delves into American Jewish McCarthyism from the 1950s through late 1970s.

The Intercept

How big primary wins are cloaking flaws in Trump reelection bid

Despite having a virtual lock on the nomination ahead of next week’s 15-state “Super Tuesday” voting bonanza, the 77-year-old has been hemorrhaging moderate Republicans, who have signaled they’d prefer someone else — anyone else — in the Oval Office.

AFP

‘We have a real impact’: oldest Black college newspaper in US turns 100

Howard University’s the Hilltop chronicles one of the US’s most storied HBCUs and is helping a new generation of journalists navigate institutional racism

The Guardian

Has Zionism Lost the Argument?

American Jews’ long-standing consensus about Israel has fractured. There may be no going back.

New Republic

Why Macron hopes abortion rights are a political winner

France is preparing to become the first country in the world to put the right to abortion in its constitution.

BBC

Ultra-Orthodox Jews block Israeli highway in protest of IDF draft

The protesters can be seen blocking vehicles and clashing with police officers at the intersection near the Coca-Cola factory in Bnei Brak in footage shared on social media.

Jerusalem Post

Drag queen arrested for performing the Lord’s Prayer in the Philippines

She’s Catholic and wanted to “reignite” faith among LGBTQ+ people. She got arrested instead.

LGBTQ Nation

Iran conservatives secure bulk of seats in elections: media

Iranian media put the voter turnout at around ’41 percent’ among 61 million voters, making a significantly low-turnout in the country marred by economic woes.

The New Arab

Germany accuses Russia of ‘information war’ after spy leak

Germany’s defense minister has accused Moscow of seeking to “destabilize” the country following the release of an audio recording of senior Bundeswehr officers discussing weapons for Ukraine.

Deutsche Welle

Farmers stage further protest over food imports

About 200 farmers have staged a protest against foreign imports of food.

A convoy of tractors and other vehicles was driven through Canterbury, Kent, on Sunday.

The farmers said they were also angry over what they have described as low prices being paid by supermarkets for their goods.

BBC

Archaeologists speechless after discovering ancient Chinese wells hidden for 1,700 years

Inside, researchers came across almost 10,000 bamboo slips, many with writing in thick ink on their surfaces.

Express

Ukrainian veterans protest after church withdrawals gay soldier’s medal

Ukrainian soldiers are protesting after the Orthodox Church withdrew a medal from a service member because he’s gay.

Advocate

Unite the Left, topple Netanyahu’s government: Yair Golan’s two goals – interview

Part of the current lack of leadership lies in the fact that the goals for the war against Hamas are unachievable, Golan argued.

Jerusalem Post

Satellite photos appear to show that North Korea has paused supplying artillery shells to Russia, reports say

“It is unclear if this is due to production problems at North Korea’s weapons factories or another issue,” wrote the analysts. However, “North Korea does not appear to have delivered containers to the export pier during that time.”

Business Insider

Shehbaz Sharif becomes Pakistan’s premier as opponents in parliament allege rigging

Lawmakers in Pakistan’s National Assembly on Sunday elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s new prime minister for the second time as allies of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan in parliament shouted in protest, alleging rigging in last month’s election.

Los Angeles Times

French Far Right Targets Immigration In European Campaign Launch

France’s far right on Sunday hammered on its traditional theme of immigration and looked to surf on Europe’s wave of farmers’ protests at the launch of its campaign for European Parliament elections in June.

International Business Times

Death toll rises to 10 in Russian drone strike on Ukraine’s Odesa

Three children killed in the attack, officials say, as Zelenskyy calls on the West to boost Ukraine’s air defences.

AlJazeera

Haiti violence: Gangs free 4,000 inmates in mass jailbreak

Armed gangs have stormed the main prison in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, releasing many inmates.

BBC