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Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyMarilyn Lands has just won the special election for Alabama House District 10—a district where she, a Democrat who speaks openly about having an abortion, was a startling break from the status quo—by a whopping 25 percentage points. She could be basking in the glow of her victory or out celebrating with the family and friends who attended her watch party last night. But Lands is already looking toward the future.
"It gives me a lot of hope for this state in 2026," she said Wednesday in an interview from her home in Huntsville. "I hope that this will be the start of us winning some more seats in 2026 and really beginning to break that [Republican] super majority."
Lands, 65, is a mother and licensed mental health counselor who, infuriated with Alabama's decision to outlaw abortion and briefly ban IVF, decided to run a campaign in the deep South focused heavily on reproductive rights.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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MSNBCBaltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) responded to some of the bizarre criticisms coming from conservatives following the cargo ship-induced collapse of the city's Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning by saying the term DEI—when applied derogatorily to him—means "duly elected incumbent."
On MSNBC's The Reid Out, host Joy Reid prefaced her interview with Scott, who is Black, by calling attention to a tweet describing Scott as "Baltimore's DEI mayor." That post, which references the acronym that stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, has generated more than 25 million views, along with a clarifying community note on X.
"I cannot believe I have to say this," Reid began. "Brandon Scott was elected with 70 percent of the vote in 2020 in a city that is 61 percent Black. So by right-wing logic, a ‘diversity hire' would have been a white man."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Hazem Bader/Getty ImagesThe Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel—and the subsequent Gaza war—are rarely understood in their primary political context, which is the power struggle among Palestinian factions.
The near-universal assumption is that Hamas viewed its surprise offensive as another phase in a long-term war against Israel. There's some truth to it, but that misreads why Hamas decided now to deliberately provoke a massive Israeli response—which is the long-standing power struggle between the Islamists in Hamas and their smaller ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), against the secular nationalists of Fatah who control the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and, more importantly, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which represents Palestinians diplomatically.
Fatah, of course, knows this full well, but a surge of nationalist sentiment and shared outrage at the mass killing and suffering of the 2.2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza muffled nationalist leaders like President Mahmoud Abbas (also the chairman of the PLO) in publicly acknowledging Hamas' breathtaking cynicism.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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BBC/Sky/ITV News/Handout via ReutersIn an audio message to mark Maundy Thursday, King Charles will say how Jesus set an "example of how we should serve and care for each other," and how "we need and benefit greatly from those who extend the hand of friendship to us, especially in a time of need."
Charles' words—which come after daughter-in-law Kate Middleton revealed her cancer diagnosis, and as he himself undergoes treatment for the disease—do not directly refer to either her or his current medical challenges, but may be seen by some as an oblique reference to the supportive responses to both.
Kate, Prince William, and Charles have all thanked the public for their well-wishes in the wake of announcing their diagnoses. In a previous statement, Charles said he was "so proud" of Kate following her public announcement.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Some Republican officials, candidates and right-wing pundits are attempting to connect the tragedy to some of their most frequent political targets: diversity initiatives, illegal immigration, covid lockdowns and the Biden administration
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