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May 13, 2025
In Burkina Faso, Traoré’s legacy could extend beyond popularity and promises
At 36, Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traoré is the world’s youngest president – in stark contrast to Africa’s average leader age of 63. He took office in September 2022 after overthrowing Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, who had ousted former president Roch Kaboré earlier that year.
The foundations of the country’s coup administration have been rocky. Last week the military government survived another apparent coup attempt; one among several since Traoré came to power.
In his inaugural statement, Traoré said Burkina Faso faced an emergency, citing crises in security, defence, healthcare, social action and infrastructure. He pledged to combat terrorism and adhere to the transition timetable agreed with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which aimed to restore democratic rule by 1 July 2024.
Under Burkina Faso’s new transition plan, Traoré may remain in his position until at least 2029
However, Burkina Faso has since withdrawn from ECOWAS, forming instead the Alliance of Sahel States with Mali and Niger – countries also run by post-coup administrations. Under Burkina Faso’s new transition plan, Traoré may remain in his position until at least 2029.
His popularity has soared since his ascension to power. At President John Mahama’s inauguration in Ghana on 7 January, Traoré received the loudest applause of all 21 African heads of state. This showed not only his popularity but the trend of tolerance for military rule in Africa, especially among the youth.
China boosts Latin America ties after US tariff retreat
One day after the U.S. and China paused their escalating trade war, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean in Beijing. The timing followed a major tariff rollback between the world’s two largest economies and marked the opening of the China-CELAC Forum’s fourth ministerial session.
Chinese leadership positioned the summit as a pivot toward global partnership amid what it called the rise of “unilateralism and protectionism.”
Xi framed China as a counterbalance to U.S. economic pressure, urging cooperation over confrontation. Without naming the U.S. directly, he warned that “bullying” and “hegemonism” would only lead to self-isolation.
Unbiased. Straight Facts.TM
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $9 billion in credit and expanded imports from Latin America, focusing on clean energy, AI and infrastructure.
What did China promise to Latin America?
Xi announced five initiatives aimed at deepening ties with Latin America and the Caribbean. These include a $9 billion credit line to support regional development and new incentives for Chinese companies to invest more heavily in the region. Beijing also pledged to expand imports from Latin America, including sectors like clean energy, digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence.
Chinese officials described the moves as part of a broader plan to strengthen the global South’s role in shaping international development.
How does this relate to US-China trade tensions?
The summit came less than 24 hours after the U.S. agreed to reduce tariffs on Chinese imports by 115% for a 90-day negotiation window. The rollback brought average tariffs from 145% down to 30%, while China cut its retaliatory duties from 125% to 10%. Additional restrictions were suspended, such as Chinese curbs on critical mineral exports.
Though the agreement eased tensions temporarily, longstanding disputes — ranging from fentanyl precursors to semiconductor access — remain unresolved.
Trump defends plan to use Qatari luxury jet for Air Force One
Trump defends plan to use Qatari luxury jet for Air Force One
US President Donald Trump has defended the White House plan to receive a luxury jumbo jet from Qatar to be used as America's Air Force One presidential plane.
"They're giving us a gift," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, adding that he would be "a stupid person" if he did not accept it.
In an earlier statement, a Qatari spokesman said it would be "inaccurate" to refer to the plane as a gift. He said the transfer of an aircraft for "temporary use" was under discussion between the two countries.
The news comes as Trump is set to visit Qatar this week as part of the first major foreign trip of his second term.
Speaking on Monday, Trump said that the US had helped the other country "a lot over the years in terms of security and safety" and that he had "a lot of respect for the leadership" of the country.
He went on to say it would be a "very nice gesture" if Qatar provided the US with a Boeing jet while his government continued to wait for two new ones to be provided directly by Boeing itself.
The potential value of the plane and its handling has raised legal and ethical questions among critics on the political left and right.
The US Constitution has a provision known as the Emoluments Clause, which restricts what gifts US presidents can accept from foreign governments. It was designed to prevent leaders from becoming beholden to foreign governments.
On social media, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff from California quoted a section of the US Constitution that said no elected official could accept "any present... of any kind whatever" from the leader of a foreign state without congressional approval.
Congressman Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate, saying the plane could "constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a president by a foreign government".
may 12, 2025
Black Struggles in 2025
Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to ‘Self-Deport’
Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to ‘Self-Deport’
For more than 62 years, the University of Mississippi has been an integrated institution of higher learning — thanks to civil rights activists’ well-documented, deliberate struggles during that time. Depending on the metric of time measurement you choose, that period is equivalent to two or three generations that have lived in a fully integrated society — at least in theory. We all know how these rule changes played out in reality.
While overt hate symbols, speech and demonstrations are less common today, they still exist. To deny this is absurd. Still, the primary contemporary obstacles facing the Black community today are more pervasive, tactical and — to an extent — self-inflicted compared to those that stifled us in the past.
Modern barriers
Take a look at the past month of news alone. Some of the executive orders signed by President Donald Trump are so egregious they amount to the legislative version of prejudice and violence. For example, an executive order focuses on rolling back diversity efforts and another ends federal protections against workplace hiring discrimination.
While some of these moves have been blocked by our judiciary, support for them is more common than many would think. This is evidenced by the troves of people who have described these mishaps as steps toward a more equitable society. Equitable for whom, I ask? It is further evidenced by those who watch idly, complicit in the undermining of our nation’s values.
Alas, when the king, as he has ironically dubbed himself, speaks, the kingdom listens.
Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to ‘Self-Deport’
Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to ‘Self-Deport’
Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to ‘Self-Deport’
Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with six people familiar with the plans.
The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits.
The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result of being added to the death database, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and more easily spend money.
Newark, N.J. Mayor Ras Baraka arrested at ICE facility, charged with trespassing
Social Security Lists Thousands of Migrants as Dead to Prompt Them to ‘Self-Deport’
Newark, N.J. Mayor Ras Baraka arrested at ICE facility, charged with trespassing
The mayor of Newark, N.J. was arrested at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center while visiting the facility with members of New Jersey's congressional delegation.
Mayor Ras Baraka was taken into custody Friday at Delaney Hall in Newark, which quietly started housing migrants detained by ICE this month.
"The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon," U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba wrote on social media. "He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW."
Baraka had his initial court appearance Friday evening and was charged with one count of trespassing. He was later released from custody.
Newark mayor speaks out after arrest
A sea of supporters greeted Baraka, a Democrat currently running for governor, moments after his release from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security field office.
April 7, 2025
Wall Street follows global markets with sharp declines as Trump doubles down on tariffs
Critics see Trump attacks on the 'Black Smithsonian' as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
Critics see Trump attacks on the 'Black Smithsonian' as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
Wall Street is pointing toward major losses Monday, following enormous declines last week, as fears mount that U.S. tariffs announced by President Donald Trump will slow global economic growth.
European and Asian shares are tumbling sharply, while the leading U.S. index briefly flirted with bear market territory before the opening bell.
Oil prices sank again, briefly dipping below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2021, with more investors anticipating that a trade war will chill global economic growth.
Futures for the S&P 500 tumbled 2.7% in premarket trading Monday, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.4%. Nasdaq futures fell 3%. All three indexes recouped some of their overnight losses, when the S&P 500 was headed toward bear market territory — defined as a fall of more than 20% from the peak. The index was off 17.4% as of the end of last week.
The massive sell-off in riskier assets at the start of the trading week follows President Trump’s announcement of sharply higher U.S. import taxes and retaliation from China that saw markets fall sharply Thursday and Friday.
Trump’s tariff strategy has long been criticized by economists, investors and business leaders, who fear that U.S. isolation will severely limit economic growth.
“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” wrote JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon in his annual letter to shareholders Monday. “Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.”
Critics see Trump attacks on the 'Black Smithsonian' as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
Critics see Trump attacks on the 'Black Smithsonian' as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
Critics see Trump attacks on the 'Black Smithsonian' as an effort to sanitize racism in US history
ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump's order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the country's Founding Fathers declared that “all men are created equal.”
But it doesn't mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census.
Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administration’s latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nation’s story.
“It seems like we’re headed in the direction where there’s even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred,” said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta.
The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history.”
Instead of celebrating an “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness,” the order argues that a “corrosive … divisive, race-centered ideology” has “reconstructed” the nation “as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
For Indian Country, federal cuts decimate core tribal programs
In policy reversal, Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution
In policy reversal, Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution
President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and government spending have reverberated across Indian Country, leaving tribes with deep uncertainty about their health clinics, schools, police agencies and wildfire crews.
Native officials say the cuts could hit a vast array of core public services in tribal communities — even though the federal government is legally required to provide those services.
“These are real jobs that our society depends on. These are cops, nurses in clinics, people who manage our forests and fisheries,” said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Washington state and a longtime leader on Native sovereignty issues.
“You can’t just come in with a chainsaw and slash everything and think you can get away with undermining this [responsibility].”
Allen, like many tribal leaders, flew to Washington, D.C., last week to lobby federal officials to change course. Tribal experts note that the cuts will be felt far beyond reservation boundaries.
“This is going to destroy whole regional economies in rural areas around the country,” said Matthew Fletcher, an Indian law professor at the University of Michigan and a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
The federal government’s unique role in supporting tribal services is not an act of generosity. It’s a legal mandate based on treaty rights guaranteed to tribal nations in exchange for conceding land. Tribes across the country signed nearly 400 treaties in the 18th and 19th centuries, and modern legal efforts have reaffirmed the feds’ obligation to uphold those promises.
In policy reversal, Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution
In policy reversal, Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution
In policy reversal, Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution
For four years, the Environmental Protection Agency made environmental justice one of its biggest priorities, working to improve health conditions in heavily-polluted communities often made up largely of Black, Latino and low-income Americans. Now that short-lived era is over.
President Donald Trump in his first week eliminated a team of White House advisors whose job it was to ensure the entire federal government helped communities located near heavy industry, ports and roadways. Trump eliminated the “Justice40” initiative the Biden administraton had created. It required 40% of the benefits from certain environmental programs go to hard-hit communities.
When the government reviews new facilities now, experts say officials are likely to ignore how any pollution they create may exacerbate what communities already experience. Trump's actions will likely halt funds from Biden administration’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, for climate programs and environmental justice.
In making the decision this week, Trump eliminated federal policy dating back to the Clinton-era, which had established a government priority of addressing environmental health problems for low-income and minority groups. He also withdrew the nation from the Paris Agreement aimed at combatting climate change.
The new administration's moves combine two goals: clawing back what Trump officials say are onerous environmental policies that constrain development and fighting diversity, equity and inclusion, according to Joe Luppino-Esposito, federal policy chief with the free-market law firm Pacific Legal Foundation.
“We've had this discussion at the Supreme Court and otherwise for many years, past discrimination is not an excuse for future discrimination," he said, adding that Trump's executive orders allow the law to be enforced “without a specific racial tinge to it."
Many experts say Biden accomplished more than any previous administration in this area.
An EPA-funded study found, for example, that Black people at all income levels are more likely to breathe pollution that causes heart and lung problems. Under Biden, regulators wrote public health rules, tighter air pollution standards and proposed mandates for harmful lead pipes. The EPA issued the largest-ever fine under the federal Clean Air Act and said it slashed more than 225 million pounds of pollution in overburdened communities. Federal grants went to communities to clean up Superfund sites or buy low-emissions school buses. The EPA set up an office to facilitate its substantial environmental justice work.
“What I’m grappling right now with is both the grief of these losses, and the fact that we were on an upward swing, if you will, just weeks ago,” said Jade Begay, an Indigenous rights and climate organizer in New Mexico.
March 31, 2025
U.S. Institute of Peace staff is laid off, escalating legal battle with Trump administration
The U.S. Institute of Peace, a government-funded think tank, has terminated nearly all of its U.S.-based employees and is drawing up plans to fire its remaining overseas employees, escalating an ongoing legal battle over whether President Trump has the authority to dismantle organizations created and funded by Congress.
The firings come after a federal judge declined to block the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) group from taking control of the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) earlier this month.
The termination notices, sent out starting around 9 p.m. on Friday to more than 200 USIP employees, are effective immediately, according to five USIP employees who received the letters. They all spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity, because all had also been given a confidential severance offer of two to four weeks' pay if they waived all rights to take legal action against the think tank.
Staffers were told to sign up for 15-minute windows to go to USIP's Washington, D.C. office to retrieve their belongings. Dozens of overseas employees and contractors have also been notified that they must submit plans on moving themselves to a "safe" location by April 9, after which they also expect to be fired, according to the employees.
How to Think (and Act) Like a Dissident Movement
We had a good show in Phoenix and during our conversation something clicked for me that I want to unpack today.
I’m leaving this edition unlocked. I hope you’ll share it. And if you’re not a member of Bulwark+ yet, I hope you’ll consider joining today. We’re doing something important here. We’re building a community that is going to be part of a broader solidarity movement. And all of the pieces of this movement need to be supported.
In the coming months everyone will be forced to choose a side, like it or not. Stand with the Bulwark community. We want you with us.
1. Seeing Like a Dissident
I was wrong about one big thing in 2024: I did not realize that most American institutions—the media, the legal world, big business, universities, the tech sector—would immediately capitulate to Trump.
In 2016 I believed the Republican party’s submission was the result of the GOP’s particular failings. That was incorrect. The Republican party was merely the first institution to accept authoritarianism because it was the first institution Trump targeted.
We now see that most institutions are weak in the face of authoritarianism.
JVL’s Law is: Any institution not explicitly anti-Trump will eventually become useful to Trump. I originally thought this would apply only to media orgs. Turns out that it applies to everyone and everything. From Ross Douthat to John Fetterman, from Paul Weiss to Facebook. All of our institutions are the Republican party now.
This is an extraordinary moment and it requires extraordinary vision and actions. We must stop viewing political life through the lens of American politics as we have known it, and adopt the viewpoint of dissident movements in autocratic states.
The Democratic party has more to learn from Alexei Navalny or the protesters in Serbia than it does from Chuck Schumer or strategists obsessing over message-testing crosstabs. This battle is half mass mobilization and half asymmetric warfare. Over the next year those tactics will matter more than traditional political messaging as it has been practiced here in living memory.
Once you accept that reality, our next steps become clear.
The rough roadmap for how to proceed goes like this:
- Demonstrate popular power in the provinces through large-scale rallies.
- Use these events to organize the resistance into a mass movement that can be called into action.
- Direct the mass movement into targeted political strikes: Getting blowout wins in special elections; boycotts of Tesla; etc.
- Politicize everything: Attack the authoritarians for every bad thing that happens, anywhere in the world. Flood the zone.
- Elevate the corruption/graft in a way that pits the billionaire insiders against the “forgotten man.”
- When the moment is right, bring this movement to the Capital for a show of strength.
- Use this demonstration as a slingshot to take back legislative power in the 2026 elections.
- More importantly, use it to send a message to the institutional actors that people will have their back if they show courage.1
Trump administration wants us to believe only white men make military great
Trump administration wants us to believe only white men make military great
My grandfather’s first cousin was Lt. Col. Howard Lee Baugh. Cousin Howard was part of the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first unit of the Tuskegee Airmen. This month marks the 84th anniversary of the activation of the Squadron at Chanute Field in Rantoul, about 120 miles southwest of Chicago.
A few years ago, I sat with my friend Norman Lear, the late TV legend behind shows like “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” that became important American cultural staples. Norman and I figured out that my cousin Howard was one of the Tuskegee Airmen who escorted Norman on some of his bombing missions during World War II. (In addition to creating those social consciousness-raising shows and founding People For the American Way, Norman’s patriotic résumé also included 52 bomber missions in America’s fight against global fascism.)
It was an amazing connection to make to this proud piece of family history. A life-sized bronze statue of Lt. Col. Baugh stands in permanent tribute to him and the other Tuskegee Airmen in the Black History Museum in Richmond, Virginia.
This history is personal to me — Lt. Col. Baugh was actually one of two of my grandfather’s cousins who were Tuskegee Airmen — but this is history that is important to countless Black Americans. It is also history the Trump administration seemingly wants to erase from existence.
Beyond the federal government no longer recognizing celebrations such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the Pentagon is removing every program, mention, image or individual they say is associated with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The Trump administration already fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. — another history-making Black fighter pilot like my cousin Lt. Col. Baugh — as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s first female chief.
It was reported last week that more than 26,000 (so far) photographs or online posts have been flagged for deletion in a Pentagon database because they apparently arouse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s suspicion of DEI. Among them: photos of the Tuskegee Airmen.
To give you an idea of the precision of this whitewashing frenzy, also targeted on the list are images captioned with or including the word “gay.” And, as of last week, that included references to the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, and photographs of people whose last name is Gay.
And it would not be Women’s History Month under the new Trump administration without targeting references to path-breaking women among the various war heroes and historic military firsts — women like Air Force Col. Jeannie Leavitt, the country’s first female fighter pilot, and Pfc. Christina Fuentes Montenegro, one of the first three women to graduate from the Marine Corps’ Infantry Training Battalion. Also listed in the database was an image of Pfc. Harold Gonsalves, who was posthumously presented the Medal of Honor for military valor during World War II and happened to be Mexican American.
The cockiest thing Trump has done so far
'It's him, it's him!' - Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage
Trump administration wants us to believe only white men make military great
All nine of the Supreme Court justices are lawyers. All of them have friends and law school classmates in private practice. All of them sit at the apex of a legal system that depends on lawyers to brief judges on the matters those judges must decide. Many of them were themselves litigators at large law firms, where their livelihood depended on their ability to advocate for their clients without fear of personal reprisals.
So it’s hard to imagine a presidential action that is more likely to antagonize the justices President Donald Trump needs to uphold his agenda, not to mention every other federal judge who isn’t already in the tank for MAGA, than a series of executive orders Trump has recently issued. These actions aim to punish law firms that previously represented Democrats or clients opposed to Trump.
The lawyers targeted by these orders are the justices’ friends, classmates, and colleagues. It would likely be easy for, say, Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Brett Kavanaugh to empathize with law partners who do the exact same work they once did.
'It's him, it's him!' - Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage
'It's him, it's him!' - Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage
'It's him, it's him!' - Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage
In a poor neighbourhood of the Venezuelan city of Maracay, the mother of 24-year-old Francisco José García Casique was waiting for him on Saturday.
It had been 18 months since he had migrated to the US to begin a new life but he had told her that he was now being deported back to Caracas, Venezuela's capital, for being in the US illegally. They had spoken that morning, just before he was due to depart.
"I thought it was a good sign that he was being deported [to Caracas]," Myrelis Casique López recalled. She wanted him home.
But he never arrived. And while watching a television news report on Sunday, Ms Casique was shocked to see her son, not in the US or Venezuela but 1,430 miles (2,300km) away in El Salvador.
The footage showed 238 Venezuelans sent by US authorities to the Terrorism Confinement Centre, or Cecot, a notorious mega-jail. She saw men with shaved heads and shackles on their hands and feet, being forcefully escorted by heavily-armed security forces.
The Trump administration says all of the deportees are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which has found itself in the White House's crosshairs. The powerful multi-national crime group, which Trump recently declared a foreign terrorist organisation, has been accused of sex trafficking, drug smuggling and murders both at home and in major US cities.
Ms Casique told the BBC she was certain her son was among the detainees, even if no official list of names has been released.
"It's him. It's him," she said, gesturing at a picture in which a man is seated, with his head bowed, on a prison floor alongside a row of others, a tattoo visible on his arm. "I recognize his features."
She also maintains that he is innocent.
Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president
'It's him, it's him!' - Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage
'It's him, it's him!' - Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.
“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.
He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”
The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
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