Names and faces
■ U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has denounced Kwanzaa as a “fake religion” just as millions of Black people start to celebrate the week-long holiday. In a social media post, the far-right Georgia lawmaker berated the national College Republicans for “pandering and BS” after the GOP group tweeted a seemingly innocuous happy holiday message. “Stop. It’s a fake religion created by a psychopath,” Greene wrote in a tweet. “People are tired of pandering and BS.” She was apparently referring to Kwanzaa founder Prof. Maulana Karenga, who was convicted of felony assault in the 1960s in what he says was a politically motivated prosecution spurred by his involvement in Black nationalist politics. Greene suggested that the College Republicans should avoid political correctness if they want to galvanize the conservative base of the GOP. “You aren’t bringing in new voters, you are turning them away,” she added. The College Republicans did not respond to Greene’s criticism about the tweet, which itself misspelled the name of the holiday as “Kwanza.” Some Republican groups seeking to highlight traditional Republican values such as personal responsibility, faith and prosperity are reaching out to GOP-skeptical groups including Blacks, Hispanics, gays and Jews. Kwanzaa, which lasts for seven days, is a holiday festival, not a religion as Greene claims. It was created in 1966 as a way to allow Black people worldwide to celebrate their common African roots. Millions celebrate it alongside other end-of-year holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah.
■ After her lawsuit win, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, got a front-page apology from the British newspaper that published parts of a personal letter she wrote to her father. A high court ruled in favor of the former Meghan Markle earlier this year after she alleged copyright infringement by the Mail of Sunday for reprinting portions of the five-page handwritten letter she penned shortly after marrying Prince Harry in May 2018. As part of the ruling, the tabloid was required to print a front-page apology to the former actress. “The Court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in The Mail on Sunday and in Mail Online,” the 96-word note, which was also published online, reads. “Financial remedies have been agreed.” A judge previously ruled that the publisher must pay pay 90% of Meghan’s $1.88 million legal expenses. The Mail’s publication of Markle’s letter to her father, Thomas, violated her “reasonable expectation” of privacy, the judge wrote in dismissing the newspaper’s appeal. Meghan called it a victory “for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right.”