“The country’s most important civil rights law no longer effectively exists, and that’s going to have ramifications on American democracy for a very long time.” Mother Jones correspondent Ari Berman reacts to the Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decision rejecting key principles of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Since the court issued its ruling last week, Republican-controlled states have begun to redraw their voting maps in a “gerrymandering arms race” that “could lead to the largest drop in Black representation since the Jim Crow era,” explains Berman. “We’re returning to the days of literacy tests and poll taxes — not through those devices, but through specifically trying to eliminate Black office holders. And Southern […]

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won big in state-level elections this week, with the Hindu nationalist BJP now controlling over 70% of the country. Leading opposition politician and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has refused to recognize the results as legitimate, accusing the Modi government of mass disenfranchisement. Ahead of elections, 9 million names were deleted from the rolls under a process called “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR). The process, conducted by India’s Election Commission, “vitiates and creates an electoral advantage by pitting Hindu voters against Muslim voters,” says political scientist Gilles Verniers. Rather than the advertised purge of […]

Gaza is facing an “environmental and biological apocalypse” under Israeli bombardment and blockade, reports Palestinian aid worker Eyad Amawi of the Gaza Relief Committee. Israel’s destruction of infrastructure has become a “generator for disease,” with sewage contamination and rodent infestation now an everyday hazard for refugees living in tent camps. “[It’s] no longer just bombardment or physical destruction. It is the collapse of every essential condition required for human survival: water, food, health, dignity, shelter, safety, everything.” Amawi also comments on the extended detention of two international activists with the Global Sumud Flotilla. Thiago Ávila and Saif Abukeshek will not be released before this […]

Israel Bombs Beirut in Further Violation of April Ceasefire, Trump Threatens Iran with Heaviest Bombing Yet, Then Predicts “It’ll All Work Out”, Trump Abandons “Project Freedom” After Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Suspend Access to Bases and Airspace, Satellite Photos Reveal Iran Has Hit Far More U.S. Military Targets Than Previously Reported, Israel Begins Bypass Road Linking Jerusalem to West Bank Settlements, U.N. Calls on Israel to Immediately and Unconditionally Release Abducted Gaza Flotilla Activists, U.S. Renews Deportation Proceedings Against Palestinian Student Activist Mohsen Mahdawi, Rutgers Rescinds Invitation to Graduation Speaker over Support for Palestinians, University of Michigan Apologizes for Professor’s […]

Leading scholar in the field of critical race theory Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality,” which she has described as a “lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.” Crenshaw, a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, has just published a new book, Backtalker: An American Memoir. “Backtalker is a frame that I use to encourage people to talk back against claims that the world as we have experienced it is the way it can only be, that there is no reason to continue to advocate for change,” says Crenshaw. She also discusses the Supreme Court’s recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act and […]