Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  4/17/19
  

  Why Pete Buttigieg may be reviving progressive ideals of the Social Gospel Movement

  by David Mislin

  A century ago views such as Buttigieg’s flourished in the Midwest.

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  4/18/19
  

  Medal of Honor review sought for minority World War I heroes

  Lawmakers want the Pentagon to take another look at scores of soldiers who may have been denied the nation's highest military honor due to their race or religion.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  4/17/19
  

  Russia isn’t the first country to protest Western control over global telecommunications

  by Sarah Nelson

  As the international community becomes increasingly concerned about misinformation and data breaches, the Russian government has announced plans to test its own, sweeping solution to the problem: disconnecting Russia from the global internet.

• 
• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  4/18/19
  

  Redactions: The Declassified File

  The release of the redacted Mueller report today focuses new public attention on the systemic problem of over-classification. Here are some classic examples of U.S. government over-zealousness in applying a figurative Magic Marker to information that was already public or should be public.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  4/17/19
  

  Abraham Lincoln, Joe Biden and the politics of touch

  by Mark M. Smith

  No one was better at tactile politics than Abraham Lincoln.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  4/15/19
  

  Why Good Friday was dangerous for Jews in the Middle Ages and how that changed

  by Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski

  Medieval Christians received the message on Good Friday that the Jews who lived in their midst were the enemies of Christians who killed their savior and needed to either convert to Christianity or face divine punishment.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/15/19
  

  The first African American major league baseball player isn’t who you think

  As the country celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, let’s consider the career of Fleet Walker.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/16/19
  

  The story behind the towering Notre Dame spire and the 30-year-old architect commissioned to rebuild it

  Less than a week before fire tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a repair crew brought down religious statues for the first time in more than a century. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/15/19
  

  A history of great cathedrals that have been lost to fire and war

  Notre Dame is one in a long line of cathedrals that have been ravaged by fire or war.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/16/19
  

  Notre Dame was in ruins. Victor Hugo’s novel about a hunchback saved it.

  France has rebuilt its iconic cathedral before.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/15/19
  

  Hu Yaobang's Death 30 years ago was the spark for the Tiananmen Square protests

  He is mourned — to this day — by those who hail him as an anti-corruption reformer.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  4/14/19
  

  F.B.I. Bars Some China Scholars From Visiting U.S. Over Spying Fears

  The F.B.I. director, warned at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last year that China presented “a whole-of-society threat on their end” that required a “whole-of-society response.”

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian.com
  4/15/19
  

  Bonn Library Recovers More Than 600 Books Looted After World War II

  The trove was flagged after a Belgian woman unwittingly tried to auction the stolen books.

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  4/12/19
  

  Bolsonaro Takes Aim at Brazil’s History

  Historical revisionism is emerging as a core obsession of the Bolsonaro administration and, according to the president’s critics, one of its most worrying.

• 
• SOURCE: New Yorker
  4/12/19
  

  The Campaign to Remove a Shocking Painting from the French Assembly

  One panel of the painting is meant to commemorate the abolition of slavery in France, in 1794, but it perpetuates grotesque racist stereotypes.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/12/19
  

  Why women led the uprising in Sudan

  by Nasredeen Abdulbari

  Throughout Sudan’s history, women have played a central role in society.

• 
• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  4/12/19
  

  Trump Administration Turns Over Massive Collection of Intelligence Records on Human Rights and Argentina

  The 47,000 Pages of CIA, FBI, NSC, DOD and State Dept. Records Touted as “Largest” Government-to-Government Transfer of Declassified Documentation

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  4/12/19
  

  Georgetown Students Vote to Add Fee for Slavery Reparations to Tuition

  if approved by the university, it will be the first time an American university financially addresses its past as a slave-owning institution.

• 
• SOURCE: BBC News
  4/16/19
  

  Natural History Museum Will Not Host Gala for Brazil’s President

  The museum drew heavy criticism for agreeing to host a ceremony at which Mr Bolsonaro, who has advocated relaxing environmental policies, was scheduled to receive a person of the year award.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  4/15/19
  

  Art Historian Caroline Bruzelius Discusses The History Of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral

  NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with art historian Caroline Bruzelius about the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which caught on fire Monday.