Contributing Writers

We look at the historic $2 billion payout by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to farmers who experienced systemic discrimination when applying to the USDA’s farm loan programs. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has documented how USDA administrators routinely denied loans to Black farmers and other farmers of color for many decades, contributing to a massive decline in the amount of Black-owned farms in the United States.

As voters in several states cast their ballots in primary elections Tuesday, we look at one of the most high-profile races between Missouri Congressmember Cori Bush and St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell, who is challenging her for the Democratic nomination. Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad,” is one of the most outspoken advocates for Palestine in Congress, and the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC has poured over $8 million into the race in an effort to defeat her.

We get an update from Dhaka, where Bangladesh’s president dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, a day after the long-ruling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country amid a wave of student protests. The military says an interim government will be formed to lead the country to new elections, but its makeup remains unclear, with many students demanding the installation of Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus as interim prime minister.

In the biggest antitrust case in decades, a federal judge ruled Monday that Google illegally maintains a monopoly over the online search industry, using its market dominance to shut out competitors and limit user choice. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for D.C. wrote in his ruling.

We get an update on the case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi, three of the men alleged to have planned the 9/11 attacks on the United States. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin surprised observers Friday by revoking a plea deal that would have commuted the three men’s sentences to life.

According to new reporting by The Washington Post, the Egyptian government attempted to funnel $10 million in cash to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, leading to a previously undisclosed Department of Justice investigation into the transaction. The investigation went nowhere, with Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr ordering it closed due to “a lack of sufficient evidence.

In Venezuela, tensions are rising over the contested results of last Sunday’s presidential election. In the latest developments, opposition candidate Edmundo González published a count of thousands of vote tally sheets alleging that he received more votes than sitting President Nicolás Maduro, who is claiming to have secured a third term fairly. Protesters from both sides have taken to the streets; more than a dozen have been killed by Venezuelan armed forces.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country after weeks of student-led protests against government nepotism, corruption and repression. The demonstrations have been met with lethal police force, resulting in over 300 deaths. Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s first president, had led the country since 2009.

We speak with The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel about the prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and several other countries on Thursday that saw the release of 24 people, with 16 prisoners in Russia traded for eight Russian nationals held in the U.S., Germany and elsewhere. It was the biggest exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West since the Cold War era. Among those released are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is reportedly at the top of the list of potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House. But many progressives have raised alarm about Shapiro’s record, including his support for corporate tax breaks and school vouchers, his relationship with oil and gas companies, and his demonization of pro-Palestinian protesters.

We speak with journalist Marc Lamont Hill amid Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican presidential nominee was interviewed this week at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he claimed Harris “happened to turn Black” for political expediency, even though she has always been open about her Jamaican and Indian American parents and identifies as both Black and South Asian.

We look at a new Washington Post investigation titled “Money War” that traces the effects of U.S. sanctions under the last four presidents: Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. According to the report, the U.S government has instituted, in some form or another, sanctions against a third of all other countries around the world, despite no clear evidence that they are effective in influencing target nations’ politics, and in fact may often entrench the power of ruling parties.

We speak with The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel about the prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and several other countries on Thursday that saw the release of 24 people, with 16 prisoners in Russia traded for eight Russian nationals held in the U.S., Germany and elsewhere. It was the biggest exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West since the Cold War era. Among those released are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is reportedly at the top of the list of potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House. But many progressives have raised alarm about Shapiro’s record, including his support for corporate tax breaks and school vouchers, his relationship with oil and gas companies, and his demonization of pro-Palestinian protesters.

We speak with journalist Marc Lamont Hill amid Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican presidential nominee was interviewed this week at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he claimed Harris “happened to turn Black” for political expediency, even though she has always been open about her Jamaican and Indian American parents and identifies as both Black and South Asian.

We look at a new Washington Post investigation titled “Money War” that traces the effects of U.S. sanctions under the last four presidents: Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. According to the report, the U.S government has instituted, in some form or another, sanctions against a third of all other countries around the world, despite no clear evidence that they are effective in influencing target nations’ politics, and in fact may often entrench the power of ruling parties.

We look at a new Washington Post investigation titled “Money War” that traces the effects of U.S. sanctions under the last four presidents: Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. According to the report, the U.S government has instituted, in some form or another, sanctions against a third of all other countries around the world, despite no clear evidence that they are effective in influencing target nations’ politics, and in fact may often entrench the power of ruling parties.

We speak with The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel about the prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and several other countries on Thursday that saw the release of 24 people, with 16 prisoners in Russia traded for eight Russian nationals held in the U.S., Germany and elsewhere. It was the biggest exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West since the Cold War era. Among those released are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is reportedly at the top of the list of potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House. But many progressives have raised alarm about Shapiro’s record, including his support for corporate tax breaks and school vouchers, his relationship with oil and gas companies, and his demonization of pro-Palestinian protesters.

We speak with journalist Marc Lamont Hill amid Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris. The Republican presidential nominee was interviewed this week at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he claimed Harris “happened to turn Black” for political expediency, even though she has always been open about her Jamaican and Indian American parents and identifies as both Black and South Asian.

We look at a new Washington Post investigation titled “Money War” that traces the effects of U.S. sanctions under the last four presidents: Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. According to the report, the U.S government has instituted, in some form or another, sanctions against a third of all other countries around the world, despite no clear evidence that they are effective in influencing target nations’ politics, and in fact may often entrench the power of ruling parties.

We play excerpts from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s interview Wednesday with a panel of Black women journalists from the National Association of Black Journalists. In response to his interviewers’ questions about his record with Black Americans, Trump cast doubts on Kamala Harris’s racial identity, repeated his claims that immigrants are threatening “Black jobs,” and declared that he was the best president for the Black community since Abraham Lincoln.

Unrest continues to brew in Israel after a right-wing mob including members of the Knesset broke into two Israeli military bases in an effort to prevent Israeli military police from detaining nine soldiers who were under investigation for gang raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman facility.

“This is one of the most perilous moments in the [Middle East] region in years,” says Ali Vaez, director of the International Crisis Group Iran Project, after Israel’s assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday in Tehran. Iranian retaliation against Israel appears imminent.

Protests erupted on Monday in Venezuela after sitting President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election despite the opposition’s accusations of election fraud. Maduro has countered by accusing the opposition of attempting to stage a fascist coup. We go to Caracas for an update from Venezuelanalysis reporter Andreína Chávez, who says the opposition’s claims are still unsubstantiated.

New details have emerged about Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance’s past comments that continue to plague the Trump campaign, with the Ohio senator having made repeated remarks over the years denigrating people without children as “cat ladies” and “sociopaths.” We speak with ProPublica reporter Andy Kroll, who has reported on Vance and says he is “demonizing huge swaths of Americans” and embodies a “really extreme version of conservative politics.

We speak with legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw about the historic presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is facing a slew of racist and misogynist attacks from Donald Trump and others as she runs to be the first woman and the first woman of color to occupy the White House. Crenshaw, who coined the term “intersectionality,” says Harris’s candidacy is leading to backlash from those who fear the emergence of a more diverse country.

Fears of all-out war in the Middle East are growing after top Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday. Haniyeh was in Iran for the inauguration of the country’s new president. Iran and Hamas both blamed Israel, which has not officially claimed responsibility but had previously vowed to kill Haniyeh and other top Hamas leaders over the October 7 attack.

Protests erupted on Monday in Venezuela after sitting President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election despite the opposition’s accusations of election fraud. Maduro has countered by accusing the opposition of attempting to stage a fascist coup. We go to Caracas for an update from Venezuelanalysis reporter Andreína Chávez, who says the opposition’s claims are still unsubstantiated.