Venus Williams is unfortunately part of the thousands of Black women who have experienced neglect within the healthcare system. Recently, the tennis star opened up about the years of pain and grueling symptoms she experienced before doctors finally listened to her concerns. 

In an interview with “Today,” Williams opened up about the crippling pain that would often leave her “laying on the floor in the locker room” before matches and “hugging the toilet,” during her menstrual cycle. 

“It just got too bad, and I couldn’t handle it,” the seven-time tennis Grand Slam champion shared. “I’m sharing now because I was outraged that I didn’t know this was possible. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. No one should have to go through this.”

For years, Williams was led to believe that her symptoms were “normal” by doctors who never explained how large her fibroids were or the intense symptoms they caused, like pain, nausea, and persistent anemia from heavy periods, which led to repeated iron transfusions.

“I live with an autoimmune disease. So I thought maybe it was autoimmune anemia or something like that. But really it was what I was dealing with inside, which was fibroids,” she said, referencing her Sjögren’s syndrome diagnosis, which causes fatigue and swollen joints. 

“One doctor told me [when I was 37] … this is a part of aging. This is normal.” Another told her to get a hysterectomy. “I’ve never been so sad in my life,” she continued. “I had never been running to have kids but I always wanted to have a choice and to have that taken away is just frightening.”

With her symptoms ultimately impacting her ability to perform as an athlete, Williams explained how she “never had enough energy most times to play a real match the way [she] wanted to.”

It was not until she found NYU Langone Health Center for Fibroid Care led by Dr. Taraneh Shirazian, that the tennis star…

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House Republicans propelled President Donald Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax breaks and spending cuts bill to final congressional passage Thursday, overcoming multiple setbacks to approve his signature second-term policy package before a Fourth of July deadline.

The tight roll call, 218-214, came at a potentially high political cost, with two Republicans joining all Democrats opposed. GOP leaders worked overnight and the president himself leaned on a handful of skeptics to drop their opposition and send the bill to him to sign into law. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York delayed voting by holding the floor for more than eight hours with a record-breaking speech against the bill.

“We have a big job to finish,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “With one big beautiful bill we are going to make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before.”

The outcome delivers a milestone for the president, by his Friday goal, and for his party,. It was a long-shot effort to compile a lengthy list of GOP priorities into what they called his “one big beautiful bill,” an 800-plus page measure. With Democrats unified in opposition, the bill will become a defining measure of Trump’s return to the White House, aided by Republican control of Congress.

Tax breaks and safety net cuts

At its core, the package’s priority is $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year.

There’s also a hefty investment, some $350 billion, in national security and Trump’s deportation agenda and to help develop the “Golden Dome” defensive system over the U.S.

To help offset the lost tax revenue, the package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to the Medicaid health care and…

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Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session.

The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president’s signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

Three Republican senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky — joined all Democrats in voting against it.

“The big not so beautiful bill has passed,” Paul said after the vote.

The difficulty it took for Republicans, who have the majority hold in Congress, to wrestle the bill to this point is not expected to let up. The package now goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson had warned senators not to deviate too far from what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems as they race to finish by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.

The outcome is a pivotal moment for president and his party, which have been consumed by the 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as it’s formally titled, and invested their political capital in delivering on the GOP’s sweep of power in Washington.

Trump acknowledged it’s “very complicated stuff,” as he departed the White House for Florida.

“I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts,” he said. “I don’t like cuts.”

What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting, in a process called vote-a-rama, spiraled into a round-the-clock slog as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support.

The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate…

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As Black-owned financial institutions have begun to crop up around the country over the years, the Western United States has continued to be left bone dry—that is, until Redemption Bank launched.

With Bernice King, the youngest child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as the vice president of corporate strategy, and roughly $65 million in assets, Redemption Bank just became the first Black-led investment group-owned bank in the Western United States, AP News reported.  

Redemption Holdings Co. officially launched on June 10, following the successful acquisition of Utah-based Holladay Bank & Trust. While the bank has plans to service individuals throughout the country, it will remain based in Salt Lake City. King will also serve on the company’s advisory board.

“I know deeply what it means for a nation to respond in times of crisis and how communities come together to realize that what’s needed, sometimes, has never been done,” King said in a release, according to the Desert News. “Redemption will help deliver on my father’s dream of economic equality, and we are honored to be ushering in needed change at such a pivotal time.”

Led by former White House Policy Advisor and Small Business Administration Regional Administrator, Ashley Bell, Redemption Bank intends to focus mainly on commercial lending and establishing a dedicated small business loan team. Bell told the Associated Press that the company is gearing up to release a fully digital platform by the end of this summer to better service small businesses around the country.

The acquisition of Holladay Bank that made way for Redemption Bank was made possible through an array of early investors including Ally Financial Inc., Central Bancorporation, Rick Durham and Christena Huntsman Durham, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Robert H. & Katharine B. Garff Foundation, the Huntsman Family Foundation, Peter and Brynn Huntsman, the Larry H. & Gail…

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Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw my father cry.

It was quick. Just a flash. A single tear ran down his cheek before he turned his back and pretended nothing happened. I was a kid, but even then I knew. Whatever pain he was carrying, he didn’t feel safe enough to show it. Not to me. Not to the world. Maybe not even to himself.

That moment never left me. And as I grew older, I understood exactly why he hid it. Black men are taught early that vulnerability is dangerous. That makes us look weak, soft, exposed. We’re conditioned to believe that silence is strength, that real men keep it moving, that asking for help is something other people do.

But that silence, that armor we wear is suffocating us.

June is Men’s Mental Health Month, and on this last day of the month, I can’t think of a more urgent time to say this out loud. Black men are in a mental health crisis, and we cannot afford to suffer in silence any longer.

According to the American Psychological Association, Black adults are 20 percent more likely to experience serious psychological distress than white adults, yet less likely to receive treatment. A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health found that suicide rates among Black men have been rising steadily over the past decade, with Black youth seeing one of the most alarming increases. A 2021 Rutgers University study revealed that Black men are less likely than any other demographic to seek therapy, even when showing signs of clinical depression.

This is not a coincidence. It’s the result of generations of systemic oppression, racial trauma, economic instability, and cultural stigma. It’s the result of a society that too often dehumanizes us, over-polices us, under-employs us, and yet still expects us to bear it all with a…

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Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary to Zohran Mamdani as the 33-year old member of the state Assembly had a significant lead in the race Tuesday night.

Cuomo’s concession came as the race’s outcome will be decided by a ranked choice count after neither Democrat got a clear majority in the vote.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist member of the state Assembly, started to pull ahead with more than an estimated 80% of ballots counted.

Cuomo, in a speech to supporters, said Mamdani “won” and that “we are going to take a look and make some decisions.”

“Tonight is his night,” Cuomo said.

Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim and Indian American mayor if elected. Cuomo is trying to make a comeback from a sexual harassment scandal. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams skipped the primary. He’s running as an independent.

The race’s ultimate outcome could say something about what kind of leader Democrats are looking for during President Donald Trump’s second term.

The vote takes place about four years after Cuomo, 67, resigned as governor following a sexual harassment scandal. Yet he has been the favorite throughout the race, with his deep experience, name recognition, strong political connections and juggernaut fundraising apparatus.

The party’s progressive wing, meanwhile, had coalesced behind Mamdani. A relatively unknown state legislator when the contest began, Mamdani gained momentum by running a sharp campaign laser-focused on the city’s high cost of living and secured endorsements from two of the country’s foremost progressives, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The primary winner will go on to face incumbent Adams, a Democrat who decided to run as an independent amid a public uproar over his indictment on corruption charges and the subsequent abandonment of the case by Trump’s Justice Department. Republican Curtis…

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Nick Cannon loves his children, but don’t ask him to name all 12. 

The 44-year-old actor and comedian, who shares 12 children with six different mothers, failed to list all 12 of his descendants during a recent appearance on the “Really Good Podcast.”  

The gaffe occurred after the topic turned to why “The Masked Singer” host has so many children. When the podcast host, Bobbi Althoff asked why, he teased that it was because he has a king complex.

“Why do I have so many kids? I have a king complex,” Cannon explained. “You know, Black men, we always be like, ‘What’s up king?’”

“I really think I’m the king,” he continued before adding that historically, kings had a penchant for having many children to expand their territory. 

When Althoff asked Cannon to name all of his children, he was initially hesitant—to say the least—and even said, “I usually get in trouble” attempting to do so. 

“I know all of them, but like. Here we go. I’ll lay them all out for you,” Cannon continued. “Keep me honest. There’s Roc, Roe, Golden, Powerful, Rise, Onyx, Legendary, Zion, Zillion, Zen, and….see this is where. How many [are left?]”

“You’re missing two,” Althoff, who had been counting along pointed out. 

“I’m missing two,” Cannon agreed. He did, eventually, remember the two kids he left out.

The father of 12 shares twins Moroccan and Monroe with ex-wife Mariah Carey; sons Golden Sagon and Rise Messiah Cannon and daughter Powerful Queen with Brittany Bell; twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir and daughter Beautiful Zeppelin with Abby De La Rosa; son Legendary Love with Bre Tiesi; and daughter Onyx Ice Cole with LaNisha Cole.

He is also father to son Zen, who died at 5 months old in December 2021 after being diagnosed with brain cancer, and daughter Halo, 2, with Alyssa Scott.

The two children he failed to name, initially, were Beautiful and Halo, and despite…

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U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted Tuesday on federal charges alleging she impeded and interfered with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center while Newark’s mayor was being arrested after he tried to join a congressional oversight visit at the facility.

Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced the grand jury indictment in a post on X.

“While people are free to express their views for or against particular policies, they must not do so in a manner that endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve,” Habba said.

McIver, a Democrat, had been charged in a complaint by Habba last month with two assault charges stemming from the May 9 visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall — a 1,000-bed, privately owned facility that Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses as a detention center.

McIver disputed the allegations as baseless and defended her presence at the facility as part of her authorized role as a member of Congress.

Her lawyer, former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman, said in a statement that they would challenge the allegations “head-on” in court.

“The legal process will expose this prosecution for what it truly is — political retaliation against a dedicated public servant who refuses to shy away from her oversight responsibilities,” Fishman said.

Habba said two of the counts carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. A third has a maximum sentence of one year. She characterized the charges as “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers.”

The indictment is the latest development in a legal-political drama that has seen President Donald Trump’s administration take Democratic officials from New Jersey’s largest city to court, tapping into the president’s immigration crackdown and Democrats’ efforts to respond. The prosecution of McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member…

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Taraji P. Henson is clearing the air around the claims that she and Oprah Winfrey are at odds. 

While on “The Breakfast Club” on Friday, June 6, to promote her new Netflix film “Straw” the 54-year-old actress addressed the rumors that there is some kind of rift between her and Winfrey that began during press for “The Color Purple” musical starring Henson and produced by Winfrey in 2023.

When co-host Charlemagne tha God brought up the rumors and how many thought Henson may have been discussing “The Color Purple” musical producers when she began to speak out about pay disparity in Hollywood, Henson was quick to retort, “You know they have bosses right?” 

“When have you ever seen me drag another woman, particularly a Black woman, ever? I’m 10 toes down for us,” she continued. “I think it was just a campaign so that this Black movie wouldn’t do well.” 

Henson noted that during the film’s theatrical run, there were even reports that her purported feud with Winfrey negatively impacted its box office performance.

“You know that’s BS right?” she said.

The film was a historic success, raking in $18 million domestically on opening day, making it the largest Christmas Day opening in over a decade and the second-largest Christmas Day opening of all time. While the performance did slow down after, the film still managed to earn $60.6 million before it left theaters.

Winfrey herself has even denied the rumors. While on the red carpet for the 2024 Golden Globes, the media mogul said there “was no validity” to the claims.

“Me and Oprah, I just have a love and a fondness for her,” Henson explained during her interview on “The Breakfast Club.” “She just texted me the other day, commending me on a job well done in ‘Straw.’ That was all fictitious, to draw a wedge between me and her.”

“I went to her defense right…

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Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, often mentioned among Democrats as a potential presidential candidate, has been saying for months that he isn’t running for the White House in 2028.

That hasn’t stopped persistent talk about his future political plans, especially when he continues to make appearances outside Maryland that raise his national profile.

On Friday, Moore traveled to speak at the Blue Palmetto Dinner in the early presidential primary state of South Carolina, where he told a ballroom of Democrats that it’s time for their shared party to take swift action to improve outcomes in areas like job creation and education outcomes, rather than slow and more deliberate moves.

“I’m here on a mission,” Moore told a packed room of party donors, activists, candidates and elected officials. “This is the moment for us to say together in one voice: gone are the days when the Democrats are the party of no and slow. we must be the party of yes and now….we must be the party of action, and that action must come now.”

Moore’s remarks served as a way to introduce himself to the voters who will play a pivotal role in the party’s next nominee. While it will be months until the 2028 presidential nominating calendar is set, South Carolina led off Democrats’ 2024 calendar, and party chair Christale Spain has said that she will renew the argument to keep the state’s No. 1 position in the next cycle.

The trip to South Carolina included meetings with business prospects. Earlier Friday, he toured Scout Motors’ electric SUV production facility in Blythewood, just north of Columbia. In a social media post, Moore characterized that trip as fact-finding that would help him “keep bringing opportunities and business like yours to Maryland, so that we can continue building and diversifying our economy.”

Moore has been intentional about face time with South Carolina Democrats before. Last summer, he was one of several potential…

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