Contributing Writers

The Smithsonian has formed a task force to address the massive collection of human remains held by its museums, which includes 255 human brains that were removed primarily from dead Black and Indigenous people, as well as other people of color, without the consent or knowledge of their families. The so-called racial brain collection was revealed by a Washington Post investigation.

We speak with renowned Florida educator Marvin Dunn about the fight to protect the teaching of Black history in the face of racist curriculum changes in the state that justify slavery and downplay violence against African Americans. Ahead of the first day of school, Dunn helped lead a “Teach No Lies” march to the Miami-Dade County School Board Wednesday to protest the new education standards.

With the death toll from the Maui wildfires at 111 and as many as 1,000 still missing, we speak with Hawaiian law professor Kapuaʻala Sproat about the conditions that made the fires more destructive and what’s yet to come for residents looking to rebuild their lives.

In a landmark climate case, a judge in Montana has ruled in favor of a group of young people who had sued the state for violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels. In her decision, Montana Judge Kathy Seeley wrote, “Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate.

An explosive leaked document obtained by The Intercept appears to show direct U.S. involvement in former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ouster in 2022 because of his stance on the war in Ukraine. Khan is currently jailed and facing trial over a slew of corruption charges that his supporters say are intended to keep him from running for office again.

Armenia is calling on the United Nations Security Council to address a worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan home to ethnic Armenians that has been under a blockade for eight months. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought multiple wars over the territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union, most recently in 2020.

As Egyptians mark the 10th anniversary of the Rabaa massacre, we speak with human rights advocate Hossam Bahgat about how the mass killing shaped the country in the ensuing years. On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces opened fire on a sit-in where tens of thousands of people had camped out in Cairo to protest the ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ralph Nader, the longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate, discusses “serial law violator” Donald Trump’s criminal indictments, particularly the second federal case brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith that accuses Trump of conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and of inciting the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill.

In a landmark climate case, a judge in Montana has ruled in favor of a group of young people who had sued the state for violating their constitutional rights as it pushed policies that encouraged the use of fossil fuels. In her decision, Montana Judge Kathy Seeley wrote, “Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigations has launched a probe into the shocking police raid on the newsroom of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher and co-owner, Eric Meyer. Last week, police seized computers, hard drives, servers and phones. Eric Meyer lived with his 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, who was co-publisher of the family-owned newspaper. She died one day after the raids.

In the wake of ProPublica’s bombshell report detailing even more lavish gifts from right-wing billionaires to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, five House Democrats are calling on the Justice Department to investigate Thomas under the Ethics in Government Act for accepting the series of gifts from wealthy benefactors without following disclosure laws. Federal judges are required to disclose gifts worth more than $1,000 — including travel.

Ecuador is reeling from the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was shot dead Wednesday after a campaign rally in the capital Quito less than two weeks before the August 20 general election. Villavicencio was running on a platform opposing corruption and organized crime. Authorities have arrested six Colombian nationals and say they are members of a drug trafficking group, but many questions remain about who was behind the murder.