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Belfast's Troubles Echo in Today's Washington

by Niall Stanage

The Hill's correspondent argues that the pattern of inciting violence and denying responsibility on display in Washington on January 6 has a grim resemblance to the work of demagogue Ian Paisley during the Northern Ireland Troubles. 

Alan Canfora, Who Carried Wounds From Kent State, Dies at 71

After being wounded by National Guard fire at Kent State, Canfora worked tirelessly to ensure that the violence would not be erased from the university's or the nation's history.

You Can Now Explore the CIA’s ‘Entire’ Collection of UFO Documents Online

If you want to read nearly 3,000 pages of CIA documents related to reports of UFOs, now you can. 

A New Film Details the FBI’s Relentless Pursuit of Martin Luther King Jr.

The new film "MLK/FBI" addresses Americans' failure to remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was unpopular, labeled as divisive and subversive, and subject to harassment by federal law enforcement agencies during his life. 

How Decades of Housing Discrimination Hurts Fresno in the Pandemic

RetroReport produces a short documentary examining how longterm housing discrimination in Fresno, CA has contributed to unequal health and economic outcomes in the COVID pandemic. 

‘World’s Greatest Athlete’ Jim Thorpe Was Wronged by Bigotry. The IOC Must Correct the Record

A fellow Olympic winner contends that the IOC must restore medals and recognition stripped from Jim Thorpe; his violation of amateurism rules was encouraged officials of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and the American Olympic Committee who made the Native American athlete a fall guy. 

Archivists Are Mining Parler Metadata to Pinpoint Crimes at the Capitol

Before it was removed from Amazon Web Services, researchers archived a significant number of the posts on Parler, the network favored by many on the far right. That data could prove useful in figuring out what happened around and inside the Capitol on January 6. 

Israeli Rights Group: Nation Isn't a Democracy but an "Apartheid Regime"

B'Tselem declared that "the traditional view of Israel as a democracy operating side-by-side with a temporary Israeli occupation in the territories 'imposed on some five million Palestinian subjects ... has grown divorced from reality'." The Israeli embassy in London dismissed the finding.

The Respectables

by Adam Serwer

The history of racist political violence in the United States means no one should be surprised by the presence of the economically comfortable and professionally accomplished among the Capitol rioters, who believe their right to rule, rather than their subsistence, is threatened. 

Capitol Riot: The 48 Hours that Echoed Generations of Southern Conflict

Hours after Mississippi legislators took the final step of removing a Confederate emblem from their state banner, a violent white mob waved the Stars and Bars as it ransacked the U.S. Capitol. 

Yes, It Was a Coup. Here’s Why

Former Trump National Security Council staffer Fiona Hill says the events of January 6, in the context of Trump's refusal to accept the election results, meet the practical standard of a coup. 

A Fraught Balancing Act

Questions of free speech and incitement, plus the demonstrable falsity of many claims made by pro-Trump student activist groups, makes for complicated choices for university administrators who may decide on disciplinary actions against students believed to incite violence. 

Invasion of the Hippos: Colombia is Running Out of Time to Tackle Pablo Escobar’s Wildest Legacy

Colombian officials failed to castrate the large and potentially dangerous animals when their numbers were small. Now the country faces a potential invasive species calamity. 

We Need a Second Great Migration

by Charles M. Blow

Times Columnist Charles Blow relocated from New York to Atlanta and says that American democracy would be healthier if younger African Americans migrated en masse to the South. 

The Smithsonian Is Collecting Objects From the Capitol Siege

Smithsonian Director Lonnie Bunch III discusses the necessity of preserving evidence of the riot at the Capitol. 

Are We Entering a New Era of Political Violence?

Political scientist Nathan Kalmoe is interviewed about parallels to the political climate of the Civil War era.

South Korean Court Orders Japan to Pay Compensation for Wartime Sexual Slavery

A South Korean court ordered the Japanese government to pay direct restitution to 12 women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military. Japan has rejected the court's authority.

Now It Can Be Told: How Neil Sheehan Got the Pentagon Papers

Award-winning journalist Neil Sheehan told an interviewer the story of how he got the Pentagon Papers, on the condition that the story could not be published while he was alive. His passing this week opens up new knowledge in the history of press freedom and the Vietnam war.

The Far Right Told Us What It Had Planned. We Didn’t Listen

The author of a book on white nationalist women argues that grievances voiced by Wednesday's Capitol building mob have long been clearly delineated in white supremacist literature. 

You Think This Is Chaos? The Election of 1876 Was Worse

“I don’t really imagine Ted Cruz knows that much about the election of 1876,” said Eric Foner, an emeritus history professor at Columbia University and a leading Reconstruction scholar.