Contributing Writers

Anti-trans attacks are a key part of Donald Trump’s campaign message, and Republicans are spending tens of millions of dollars in the last stretch of the presidential race to flood the airwaves and social media with political ads that focus on transgender rights. “Transphobia is not just a plank but a key pillar of the Republican Party,” says journalist Imara Jones of TransLash Media. “The Republican Party has become an extremist movement.

Vice President Kamala Harris made her closing argument Tuesday in a major speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., scene of the Trump rally in 2021 that led to the Capitol riot. Harris described Trump as a tyrant who would shred the rule of law if given another four years in office.

The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post announced that they would not be endorsing anyone in the U.S. presidential election this year, breaking decades of precedent and overriding planned endorsements of Kamala Harris. The decisions were ordered by the outlets’ multibillionaire owners, Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos.

We take a close look at Donald Trump’s campaign and racist rally at Madison Square Garden with filmmaker Marshall Curry, who attended the rally and also directed the short film A Night at the Garden, about the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, and notes, “The demagogues in 1939 used the same tactics that we see today.

We speak with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on fascism and authoritarianism, who argues that Trump’s use of the hallmarks of “fascism and violence,” including dehumanizing rhetoric, profane and crude discriminatory language and threats to the “enemy within,” echoes the rise of midcentury fascist rulers like Francisco Franco and Adolf Hitler.

In the final week ahead of the presidential election, Republican Donald Trump’s campaign is facing widespread backlash after his rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden, where conservative comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “an island of garbage” and others leaned into racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. We speak to journalist Jean Guerrero, who has published books on Trump’s white nationalist agenda and her own Latina and Puerto Rican identity.

In the swing state of Arizona, President Biden formally apologized Friday for U.S. government-run Native American boarding schools, which sought to exterminate Indigenous culture by forcibly removing children from their families and placing them in institutions where their languages and customs were suppressed.

We speak with Iranian American policy analyst Trita Parsi about Israel’s latest attack on Iran on Saturday, when it bombed military facilities and air defense systems in the country. Iran said four soldiers were killed in the attack. Israel also struck air defense batteries and radars in Syria and Iraq.

More than 3,000 Israelis have signed an open letter urging “global pressure on Israel to force an immediate ceasefire.” The signatories say they are motivated by patriotic duty to stop the country’s war crimes in Gaza and beyond, but say the lack of sanctions from other countries has allowed Israel to continue to pursue war, abandon the hostages still held in Gaza, ignore domestic opposition and persecute Palestinian citizens of Israel without real cost.

Israel’s three-week siege of northern Gaza has killed at least 1,000 Palestinians. Most of the dead are women and children. On Saturday, Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital just one day after storming it, with health officials saying that soldiers detained dozens of male medical staffers and some of the patients.

Will the BRICS economic and political alliance change the world’s U.S.-centered balance of power? As the annual BRICS summit wraps up in Russia, we host a debate between American economist Richard Wolff and South African sociologist Patrick Bond over the significance of the conference. This year, the nine BRICS countries invited 13 new “partner states” into their alliance, which Wolff calls “historic” and “a serious economic competitor to the United States and its role in the world.

In an extended interview, Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha discusses the situation in Gaza and his new book of poetry titled Forest of Noise. He fled Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military, but many of his extended family members were unable to escape. He reads a selection of poems from Forest of Noise, while sharing the stories of friends and family still struggling to survive in Gaza, as well as those he has lost, including the late poet Refaat Alareer.

Israeli soldiers have just conducted what Gaza’s Civil Defense is calling a “major massacre” in Jabaliya, with more than 150 people killed or injured and dozens of buildings destroyed. It is the latest atrocity amid the military’s weekslong siege of northern Gaza. “It’s getting worse and worse,” says Dr. Mohammed Salha in a call from the Jabaliya refugee camp, where he is acting director of Al-Awda Hospital.

We speak with Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a prominent Muslim leader and former Democratic candidate for Congress, after the Kamala Harris campaign apologized for kicking him out of a Detroit election event Monday to which he was invited. Harris’s staunch support for Israel as it continues its brutal war on Gaza has infuriated many Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan, and while Ghanim says it’s a very important issue to him, he was not there to protest.

Will the BRICS economic and political alliance change the world’s U.S.-centered balance of power? As the annual BRICS summit wraps up in Russia, we host a debate between American economist Richard Wolff and South African sociologist Patrick Bond over the significance of the conference. This year, the nine BRICS countries invited 13 new “partner states” into their alliance, which Wolff calls “historic” and “a serious economic competitor to the United States and its role in the world.

In an extended interview, Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha discusses the situation in Gaza and his new book of poetry titled Forest of Noise. He fled Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military, but many of his extended family members were unable to escape. He reads a selection of poems from Forest of Noise, while sharing the stories of friends and family still struggling to survive in Gaza, as well as those he has lost, including the late poet Refaat Alareer.

Israeli soldiers have just conducted what Gaza’s Civil Defense is calling a “major massacre” in Jabaliya, with more than 150 people killed or injured and dozens of buildings destroyed. It is the latest atrocity amid the military’s weekslong siege of northern Gaza. “It’s getting worse and worse,” says Dr. Mohammed Salha in a call from the Jabaliya refugee camp, where he is acting director of Al-Awda Hospital.

We speak with Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a prominent Muslim leader and former Democratic candidate for Congress, after the Kamala Harris campaign apologized for kicking him out of a Detroit election event Monday to which he was invited. Harris’s staunch support for Israel as it continues its brutal war on Gaza has infuriated many Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan, and while Ghanim says it’s a very important issue to him, he was not there to protest.

We speak with Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a prominent Muslim leader and former Democratic candidate for Congress, after the Kamala Harris campaign apologized for kicking him out of a Detroit election event Monday to which he was invited. Harris’s staunch support for Israel as it continues its brutal war on Gaza has infuriated many Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan, and while Ghanim says it’s a very important issue to him, he was not there to protest.

Will the BRICS economic and political alliance change the world’s U.S.-centered balance of power? As the annual BRICS summit wraps up in Russia, we host a debate between American economist Richard Wolff and South African sociologist Patrick Bond over the significance of the conference. This year, the nine BRICS countries invited 13 new “partner states” into their alliance, which Wolff calls “historic” and “a serious economic competitor to the United States and its role in the world.

In an extended interview, Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha discusses the situation in Gaza and his new book of poetry titled Forest of Noise. He fled Gaza in December after being detained by the Israeli military, but many of his extended family members were unable to escape. He reads a selection of poems from Forest of Noise, while sharing the stories of friends and family still struggling to survive in Gaza, as well as those he has lost, including the late poet Refaat Alareer.

Israeli soldiers have just conducted what Gaza’s Civil Defense is calling a “major massacre” in Jabaliya, with more than 150 people killed or injured and dozens of buildings destroyed. It is the latest atrocity amid the military’s weekslong siege of northern Gaza. “It’s getting worse and worse,” says Dr. Mohammed Salha in a call from the Jabaliya refugee camp, where he is acting director of Al-Awda Hospital.

We speak with Dr. Ahmed Ghanim, a prominent Muslim leader and former Democratic candidate for Congress, after the Kamala Harris campaign apologized for kicking him out of a Detroit election event Monday to which he was invited. Harris’s staunch support for Israel as it continues its brutal war on Gaza has infuriated many Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan, and while Ghanim says it’s a very important issue to him, he was not there to protest.

Al Jazeera is demanding the safety of its staff in the Gaza Strip after Israel claimed that six of the network’s journalists there have ties to militant groups. Press freedom advocates say the Israeli accusation amounts to a preemptive justification for murder. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza last October, at least 128 journalists have been killed, including many from Al Jazeera.

The leading Israeli human rights group B’Tselem warned this week the world must stop the “ethnic cleansing” of northern Gaza, where the Israeli military has imposed a brutal siege since October 5, demanding that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee south or face death. Israel is blocking almost all food, water and medicine from reaching northern Gaza while its forces carry out deadly raids and bombardment of the area, overwhelming the remaining hospitals.

Israel is escalating its bombardment of Lebanon, leveling numerous buildings, including the offices of Lebanese news station Al Mayadeen. The Israeli military has also attacked the ancient city of Tyre, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, and killed three Lebanese soldiers in a strike in southern Lebanon, all while continuing to defy international calls for a ceasefire. “What we’re seeing is a complete degeneration into a war that has no rules, that respects no international conventions.

We continue our conversation with the acclaimed author, journalist and activist Naomi Klein, who says Vice President Kamala Harris is “running an extremely high-risk, dangerous campaign” for the White House and “trying to win without the base.” Klein faults Harris for largely ignoring progressives she needs to turn out on November 5 as she courts Republicans, even as Donald Trump’s authoritarian threats to go after “the enemies within” could put many people at risk if he is reelected.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is continuing to resist calls to resign after being indicted on federal corruption charges. In recent weeks, at least seven senior city officials have resigned, leaving the city government in a state of crisis. This comes a year before New Yorkers will vote to pick the city’s next mayor. Adams has vowed to run for reelection, but opponents, including fellow Democrats, are lining up to run against him.

In Puerto Rico, a new political alliance called the “Alianza” will be on the ballot this November in a bid to change the U.S. territory’s political status quo.