This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The 85-mile stretch of land along the lower Mississippi River in Louisiana is among the most studied industrial corridors in the country. Over the past several decades, advocates, scholars, and journalists have published numerous reports detailing the dangerous concentrations of toxic chemicals […]
Jurors in the defamation case against Donald Trump took less than three hours to decide that Trump should pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she claimed Trump raped her in the 1990s in a downtown New York City department store. A jury in a related trial last year determined […]
After months of legal battles, including a last-minute petition on the day of the execution, Alabama has executed Kenneth Eugene Smith, a man convicted in a 1988 murder-for-hire plot, via nitrogen gas—making him the first man in the United States to be killed by that untested and highly controversial method. On Thursday, at 8:25 p.m., Smith, who […]
Last night, former president Donald Trump inserted himself into the showdown between the federal government and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, encouraging states to send troops to the southern border to try to curb illegal immigration. On Truth Social, Trump pushed for “all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of […]
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Joe Biden’s administration has hit the brakes on the US’s surging exports of gas, effectively pausing a string of planned projects that have been decried by environmentalists as carbon “mega bombs” that risk pushing the world further towards climate breakdown. On Friday, […]
The United Nations’ top court ruled Friday that a case brought by South Africa alleging Israel is committing genocide in Gaza will go forward. While the legal battle will play out for years, the court said Israel must take steps now to prevent genocide and get more humanitarian aid into Gaza. The order from the […]
On March 5, Californians will vote on Proposition 1. The ballot measure, if passed, will allow the state to divert funds raised for non-coercive mental health care to housing and other behavioral health programs—including involuntary confinement. Through a bond, the proposition would also raise some $6.4 billion (over 30 years) for behavioral health and housing. But […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Groundwater supplies are dwindling in aquifers around the world, a groundbreaking new study found, with the rates of decline accelerating over the past four decades in nearly a third of aquifers studied. Many agricultural centers face an uncertain […]
Anti-abortion Wisconsin Republicans say the darndest things. While debating a bill in the state legislature that would allow a public vote on a 14-week abortion ban—which passed today, but which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has pledged to veto before it can reach voters in April—they compared women to animals and biblical figures, and said that […]
After passing what was, at the time, the strictest abortion ban in the country, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sought to fend off critics by pledging to work to “eliminate rape” in the state. But a new study published yesterday shows the extent to which Abbott has failed to do so—even after a stricter abortion ban […]