Contributing Writers

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been cleared to run for office again after a judge annulled all convictions against him. Three years ago, Lula, a former union leader who served as president from 2003 to 2010, had been considered a favorite in the lead-up to the 2018 presidential election until he was jailed and forced out of the race on what many said were trumped-up corruption charges.

Fifty years ago, on March 8, 1971, a group of eight activists staged one of the most stunning acts of defiance of the Vietnam War era when they broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole every document they found. The activists, calling themselves the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, began leaking shocking details about FBI abuses to the media.

Rutgers University has voted to begin divesting from fossil fuels, following a campaign by the student-organized Endowment Justice Collective that grew out of the Global Climate Strike in 2019. The organizing efforts led to a referendum vote in 2020 in which 90% of students supported divestment. About 5% of Rutgers’s $1.

The prominent scholar and activist Cornel West has announced he is leaving Harvard Divinity School after he was denied consideration for tenure, and will rejoin the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he started his teaching career more than 40 years ago. West had left Harvard once before in 2002 and returned to a nontenured position at Harvard in 2017.

As President Joe Biden prepares to sign the sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID relief package into law, we speak with economist Stephanie Kelton, author of “The Deficit Myth,” about how the bill could help cut child poverty in half and provide a historic economic boost to the poorest people in the United States.

A new feature film, “The Mauritanian,” tells the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian man who was held without charge for 14 years at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo and repeatedly tortured. We speak with Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who says the film is not just about his struggle. “This is not my movie. This is the movie of so many people,” he says. “Some of the people who were kidnapped after 9/11 were tortured to death.

Fifty years ago, on March 8, 1971, a group of eight activists staged one of the most stunning acts of defiance of the Vietnam War era when they broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole every document they found. The activists, calling themselves the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, began leaking shocking details about FBI abuses to the media.

Texas is the largest state to lift its mandate on face masks and fully reopen businesses, joining a growing movement in states governed by Republicans to ease pandemic restrictions even as experts warn it is too soon to do so, despite the accelerating pace of vaccinations in the United States. “This is completely politically motivated,” says Dr.

The murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter for killing George Floyd, is proceeding to jury selection despite an order from an appeals court judge that a third-degree murder charge be considered, as well. We speak with Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and racial justice activist, who says that if the trial proceeds, who serves on the jury could prove crucial in the case.

Outrage over police brutality and the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people has generated calls to defund and abolish the police.

A new feature film, “The Mauritanian,” tells the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian man who was held without charge for 14 years at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo and repeatedly tortured. We speak with Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who says the film is not just about his struggle. “This is not my movie. This is the movie of so many people,” he says. “Some of the people who were kidnapped after 9/11 were tortured to death.

President Joe Biden is facing new calls to close the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, an enduring symbol of U.S. abuses in the “war on terror.” Since 2002, about 770 men and boys have been held at the prison, and only eight have been convicted of a crime. Three of the convictions were later overturned on appeal.

Millions of women around the world are taking to the streets today to mark International Women’s Day — in a year where women have been disproportionately impacted by rising poverty, unemployment and violence during the pandemic. We hear voices from protests in the Philippines, Mexico and Guatemala.

Outrage over police brutality and the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people has generated calls to defund and abolish the police.

Israel has failed to make COVID-19 vaccines available to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, despite its responsibility under the Geneva Conventions. Critics in the United States say this “vaccine apartheid” is another example of Israeli human rights abuses going unpunished, even as the country receives billions in U.S. aid each year. Congressmember Mondaire Jones of New York says Israel must ensure that Palestinians are vaccinated.