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Following a trial that lasted just one week from jury selection to verdict, a Collin county, Texas, jury found Karmelo Anthony, now 19, guilty of murder in the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf last year. The closely watched trial drew national attention, with viral social media posts that highlighted the racial composition of the case: Anthony is Black; Austin was white. Attorneys selected 12 jurors and six alternates for the trial; none of the jurors was Black. Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison later on Tuesday. Anthony, of Centennial high school, and Austin, of Memorial high school, were both 17 when they met during a Frisco independent school district track meet in April 2025. A rain shower started and led to confusion – some athletes stayed on the field, while others ran for cover under team tents. Centennial did not have a tent that day, and when Anthony sought shelter under Memorial’s tent, a confrontation occurred resulting in Anthony stabbing Austin, who was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital. Anthony’s legal team argued that he’d acted in self-defense after he was confronted by members of the Memorial high school team. The defense said Austin and his twin brother, who are about 6ft 1in and 213lb, confronted Anthony, who is 5ft 8in and about 130lb. The defense claimed that Anthony reacted to “fear and chaos”, while a prosecutor said that Austin was stabbed in a “sneak, surprise attack”. Prosecuting attorney Bill Wirskye said that Anthony threatened Austin, quoting a trial witness who said that the teen had told Austin: “Touch me and find out.” Wirskye said that video evidence shown during the trial supported the argument that other people in the tent had not turned on Anthony, and that the incident was one-on-one. A Texas law allowed Anthony to be tried as an adult, despite his being a minor at the time of the stabbing. Austin’s twin brother, Hunter, was in the courtroom for the first time during the trial, as Texas district court judge John Roach Jr read the verdict. As he was on the witness list, Hunter Metcalf had not been allowed in the courtroom. When the verdict was read, Hunter Metcalf leaned forward, while Anthony’s mother wept. Anthony broke down in tears, and his parents left the courtroom; Anthony has been remanded into the custody of the Collin county sheriff’s office.

Pope Leo XIV made a historic apology on Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in legitimizing slavery and for having failed to condemn it for centuries, calling the Vatican’s record a “wound in Christian memory.”

Thomas Adamson, apnews.com For nearly two centuries after France abolished slavery, the colonial-era law that classified humans as property has remained quietly on the books. On Thursday, the lower house of parliament voted to wipe it from French law. The National Assembly voted 254-0 — a rare show of unanimity — to adopt a bill repealing Code Noir, or Black Code, the 1685 decree King Louis XIV signed to govern slaves across France’s colonies. The law turned human beings into chattel, allowing them to be worked, beaten, sold, raped and murdered. And the realization that France never formally did away with it left many aghast. Debate in the chamber turned raw on Thursday. Steevy Gustave — a lawmaker descended from enslaved people on the Caribbean island of Martinique, now a French overseas department — told colleagues that the repeal was necessary, “but no vote alone can repair centuries of shattered lives.” “We are not descendants of slaves,” he said, bursting into tears. “We are descendants of human beings born free, then reduced to the worst — reduced to slavery.” The code’s reach was total. Article 44 declared the enslaved “movable property” — assets a master could acquire like real estate. Those who fled faced branding, the amputation of their ears, and even death. The word of an enslaved person counted for nothing.

Well, what is actually going on as it regards the US/Israeli war with Iran and how does any of this relate to Black people?