Photography is often touted as the most democratic and accessible medium in the visual arts. Today, the majority of us carry phones equipped with powerful, easy-to-use cameras that capture our lives and the world around us, transforming each of us into a documentarian at a moment’s notice. This omnipresence shapes our understanding of art and culture and often serves as a critical tool for political and social change.

The same is true for a forthcoming exhibition at the Mississippi Museum of Art. Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985 transports viewers to the mid-20th century, when the medium rose to prominence not only for artists but also for organizers, activists, and cultural icons. Featuring works by more than 100 photographers, the expansive exhibition ranges from editorial and commercial commissions to self-portraits and mixed-media social critiques. Many of the works push back against the state-sanctioned racism of the Jim Crow era and highlight the acts of protest that emerged from such discrimination.

Included is a graphic collage by Ralph Arnold titled “Above This Earth, Games, Games” that splices cut-outs of football matches with images of war and destruction. Taken that same year, 1968, was Ernest Withers’s captivating shot of Memphis sanitation workers picketing following the death of two employees. Creating a visual wall of signs declaring “I Am A Man,” the strikers in suits and hats demand both better working conditions and dignity and respect.

Cultural touchstones like the enigmatic musician and philosopher Sun Ra also appear. In a dynamic, black-and-white photo by Ming Smith, the jazz leader spins in front of the band, his glittering garb appearing like a halo of brilliant sparks.

Exhibition curators contextualize the show in a quote from Julian Bond, a civil rights leader who helped establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: “Pictures told, for those who could not see themselves, of the strength and beauty of the people, of the hostility and anger of the opposition, and of the promise of a world free of racism.”

Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985 is on view from July 25 to November 8 in Jackson.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article The Photographs that Shaped the Black Arts Movement in the Mid-20th Century appeared first on Colossal.

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Guzman y Gomez, the Mexican-themed fast food chain, is pulling out of the United States in a spectacular turnaround on its American market ambitions, AAP reports.

The decision was made because the financial performance of the US business was not acceptable or meeting targets.

Satirical project is viral sensation and outlet for protest on social media as it taps into young people’s frustration

It began as a satirical online project after India’s chief justice compared unemployed young people to cockroaches. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration.

A parody political party with the insect as its symbol has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humour into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach – an insect known for its ability to survive harsh conditions – as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance.

A 55-year-old man has pleaded guilty to making and distributing “seditious” materials, including ones that called for a boycott of the “patriots only” legislative elections last year.

Raymond Wong, a construction worker, was charged and brought to the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday afternoon.

He was arrested by national security police on April 21, a government statement said on Thursday. His arrest was not known to the public before, as police did not issue information about it at the time.

Wong was charged with two counts of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention,” an offence under Hong Kong’s homegrown national security law, also known as Article 23.

According to a court document, Wong allegedly made “paper sheets written with statements” and threw them “into a public space” from a 12th-floor flat in On Tat Estate, a public housing estate in Kwun Tong. The first count of the sedition offence was dated October 2, 2024, and the second one was dated December 5, 2025.

Local media reported that on October 2, 2024, a Kwun Tong district councillor found pieces of paper with phrases including “blow up corrupt police officers” scattered on the estate’s podium. The district councillor called the police and handed over 41 sheets of paper.

On December 5 last year, two days before the “patriots only” Legislative Council elections, a staff member at the estate’s property management company found sheets of paper reading “liberate Hong Kong, do not vote,” also on the estate’s podium.

Police were called, and they seized 16 pieces of paper with seditious phrases. Wong’s fingerprints were found on two of them.

Wong’s case was adjourned to June 9 for sentencing to await his background report, a social welfare report and a psychological report.

Sedition is punishable by up to seven years in jail. If the defendant is found to have colluded with an “external force” when committing the offence, they face a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

Jail terms handed down at the magistrate’s court, however, are capped at two years, or three when a defendant is convicted of more than one offence.

The maximum penalty for sedition was increased in March 2024, when lawmakers passed Article 23. Before that, it was punishable by up to two years, when sedition fell under a colonial-era ordinance.

Move comes amid condemnation of Itamar Ben-Gvir after video posted showing detained protesters being taunted

Israel has said it has deported all the foreign activists it seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla, after a global outcry over their treatment in custody that led the UK to join other countries in summoning Israeli diplomats for a formal dressing down.

More than 430 activists from countries around the world had been placed in detention in Israel after they were intercepted at sea on Monday while making the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory.

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said Thursday he would be “happy” to talk to US leader Donald Trump — a conversation that would break more than four decades of diplomatic protocol and risk angering China.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would speak to Lai, as the White House weighs arms sales to the democratic island.

It was the second time since a summit in Beijing last week that Trump has said he would call the Taiwanese leader.

Such communication would be the first time since Washington switched diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 that serving presidents of Taiwan and the United States would speak to each other.

Lai said Taiwan was “committed to maintaining the stable status quo in the Taiwan Strait” and that “China is the disruptor of peace and stability”, the Taiwanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

China ‘firmly opposes’ call

Lai would be “happy to discuss these matters with President Trump”, the statement said.

“I’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody,” Trump said, adding that he had a great meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to Beijing last week.

“We’ll work on that, the Taiwan problem,” Trump said.

China’s foreign ministry said Thursday it “firmly opposes official exchanges” between the United States and Taiwan, as well as US arms sales to the island.

“China urges the United States to implement the important consensus reached during the meeting between the Chinese and US heads of state, honour its commitments and statements, handle the Taiwan question with the utmost prudence,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press briefing.

He added that Washington should “stop sending wrong signals” to Taiwan.

After wrapping up his trip to Beijing, Trump suggested arms sales to Taiwan could be used as a bargaining chip with China, which claims the island is part of its territory and has threatened to seize it by force.

Since then, Lai’s government has been on the offensive, insisting that US policy on Taiwan has not changed and that Trump made no commitments to China on arms sales to the island.

Taiwan relies heavily on US support to deter any potential Chinese attack, and has been under intense pressure to increase its spending through investment in American firms.

In 2016, shortly after his first election victory, president-elect Trump accepted a phone call from then Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, angering Beijing and stunning diplomats, world leaders and China watchers.

President Xi Jinping hailed China and Russia’s “unyielding” ties in talks with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, as the pair met to underscore their alliance days after Donald Trump’s own visit to Beijing.

The two countries’ ties have deepened since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as Russia has become increasingly dependent on China, its main oil customer.

Putin was received by Xi outside Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People in much the same fashion as Trump last week, complete with chanting children and military fanfare.

But the language was much warmer, with Xi telling the Russian leader Beijing and Moscow have “continuously deepened our political mutual trust and strategic coordination with a resilience that remains unyielding”, according to Chinese state media.

Opening talks, both were quick to laud their countries’ special ties as they extended their treaty of “friendly cooperation”.

Putin, quoting a Chinese phrase, told Xi: “A day apart feels like three autumns”, adding that relations had reached an “unprecedentedly high level” despite “unfavourable external factors”, Russian media footage showed.

In an apparent swipe at the United States, Xi warned of “unilateral and hegemonic countercurrents running rampant” in the world.

In contrast to Trump’s visit last week, which yielded little in the way of immediate concrete announcements, Putin and Xi signed a slew of agreements on Wednesday on trade, media and energy.

The two leaders later had talks over tea, which the Kremlin had previously said would be reserved for “the most important issues” such as Ukraine, Iran and relations with the US.

That session lasted around 1.5 hours before Putin headed to the airport, according to Russian media.

Fossil fuel push

Beneath the camaraderie, Putin is now perceived by many to be the junior partner in the relationship.

The Russian leader has been weakened over four years of the Ukraine conflict, with his country’s economy shrinking in the first quarter of the year as factors such as wartime spending, labour shortages and sanctions take their toll.

Analysts believed Putin would use his visit to push for progress on the “Power of Siberia 2”, a major natural gas pipeline running from Russia to China through Mongolia.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media Wednesday that while the two sides had reached a “basic understanding” — including on “the route and how it will be built” — there was no “clear timeline”, and “there are still some details to be worked out”.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has hampered crude and gas flows from the Middle East, giving an opportunity for Putin to offer Russian energy sources as an alternative.

“Russia and China are actively cooperating in the energy sector… We are, of course, ready to continue reliably supplying all these types of fuel to the rapidly growing Chinese market,” Putin said Wednesday.

His priorities may differ from China’s, which wants the Middle East conflict concluded as soon as possible.

Underlining that, Xi told Putin on Wednesday that “a comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important”.

‘Sovereign foreign policy’

Xi has played host to a series of world leaders as an increasingly unpredictable United States under Trump has pushed many to shore up alliances with Beijing.

Many have urged him to use his influence with Russia and Iran to help bring an end to the respective conflicts there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had asked Trump to discuss ending the war during his meetings with Xi last week.

The pair did talk about the issue, but the US president left China without a breakthrough.

Beijing has regularly called for talks to end the war in Ukraine, but has never condemned Russia for sending in troops — presenting itself instead as a neutral party.

The two leaders talked about Ukraine, Chinese state media said after the visit had ended, without giving further details.

On Wednesday Putin said that Russia and China were “committed to an independent and sovereign foreign policy”.

In a joint statement released by the Kremlin, Russia said it “positively assesses the objective and unbiased position of the Chinese side regarding the situation in Ukraine and welcomes China’s aspiration to play a constructive role”.

Clashes between demonstrators and police in La Paz have entered second week, shaking centre-right president

Protests blocking roads across Bolivia and turning the centre of the capital, La Paz, into a battleground between demonstrators and police have entered a second week.

It is the most turbulent moment of the centre-right president Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s mere six months in office since he ended nearly two decades of rule by the leftwing Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas).