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A Law Signed by Bolsonaro Paved the Way for Authorities to Prosecute His Insurrectionists

On Sunday, in Brazil’s version of the January 6 insurrection, thousands of supporters of defeated former President Jair Bolsonaro staged a coordinated assault against the country’s democratic institutions and three branches of government. On the grounds of Brasília’s Three Powers square, insurrectionists stormed and trashed the Supreme Court, the Palácio do Planalto, and Congress buildings, as […]

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Mother Jones

Tell Us About Coming of Age During #MeToo

This October marked five years since the #MeToo movement began. At the time, we reflected on the ways we’d been treated at school, at the office, at home. We named abusers. And upon this most recent anniversary, I’ve been thinking specifically about what the movement has meant for those who “grew up” during this period. […]

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Top Trump Executive Sentenced to Five Months in Tax Fraud Case

A Manhattan judge has sentenced longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to five months in jail for his role in helping the former president’s businesses evade taxes for much of the last decade. Following the sentencing on Tuesday afternoon, Weisselberg, 75, was taken into custody and transported to New York City’s Rikers Island jail […]

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The Case Against a More Cinematic C-SPAN

The internet is in rare agreement: C-SPAN, the famously staid public affairs network, had a banger week. Measured in television ratings, that’s indisputable; Americans were apparently riveted by Kevin McCarthy’s marathon humiliation, and who could blame them? But the attendant praise for a C-SPAN gone wild—the direct result of the chaos the network’s cameras were […]

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5 Climate Questions for 2023

This piece was published originally by Capital & Main. All good stories start with a question. So here are five questions for journalists to consider as the record-breaking accumulation of greenhouse gases continues into the opening days of 2023. Climate change, of course, can’t be divided into parts. The answers to these questions, however you devise them, may […]

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A Tax Guru Explains Why Donald Trump May Finally Be in Trouble

As the Republican nominee in 2016, Donald Trump repeatedly promised that he, like every other Oval Office contender in recent memory, would release his tax returns. As we now know, he likely had no intention of doing so. In fact, Trump has fought tooth and nail to keep his tax records hidden—from prosecutors, Congress, and […]

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How Did All These State Agencies Get To Be So Funny?

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. “If you encounter a cougar, never approach or offer it food. You are not a Disney princess.” “Most grandma/reindeer collisions are entirely preventable. Please give wildlife plenty of space.” “Please be responsible with hot takes this Thanksgiving if your turkey […]

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A 6-Year-Old Shot His Teacher With a Gun Purchased by His Mom

A shocking act of gun violence took place on Friday at an elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, where a 6-year-old boy used a gun he’d brought to school to shoot his teacher during class. The act was “intentional,” according to local authorities, who have not yet disclosed a possible motive. The teacher, 25-year-old Abigail […]

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Brazil Just Had Its January 6. It Wasn’t Hard to See It Coming.

RIO DE JANEIRO – On January 1, 2023, a photograph of newly inaugurated Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, walking up the access ramp to Palácio do Planalto, the presidential offices building in Brasilia, accompanied by a diverse group of people representing Brazil’s society—including a Black woman, an indigenous leader, a 10-year-old boy— appeared on […]

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Federal Agency to Consider Ban on Gas Stoves

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering a ban on gas stoves, citing mounting research linking the appliance to a host of health problems including children’s asthma. In addition to a potential ban on new gas stoves, Bloomberg reports the agency is looking into setting industry-wide standards on stove emissions. One of the agency’s […]

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Environmentalists Hate the EPA’s Proposed Biofuel Standards

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new standards for how much of the nation’s fuel supply should come from renewable sources. The proposal, released last month, calls for an increase in the mandatory requirements set forth by the federal Renewable […]

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Of Course Steve Bannon and January 6 Fans Are Cheering on the Brazilian Insurrection

Steve Bannon and others involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on Congress lauded supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro as they stormed government buildings in their capital on Sunday. The cheerleading showed that far-right supporters of Donald Trump’s Big Lie are not merely unrepentant but eager to continue exporting their opposition to democratic norms. […]

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Extreme Right-Wing Bolsonaro Supporters Storm Brazilian Capital

In scenes reminiscent of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump, crowds of supporters who appear to back former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stormed that country’s major government buildings, including the presidential offices, legislative building, and supreme court, on Sunday. While the situation continues to develop, images […]

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The House GOP Is All Revved Up to Investigate the Investigators

Fueled by anger over the federal law enforcement investigation of former president Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of confidential documents and the trials and subsequent imprisonment of some January 6 participants, Republicans plan to institute a new select committee to investigate the investigators. While probing the FBI’s role in the Mar-a-Lago raid last year was a staple of the GOP’s talking […]

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McCarthy’s Day One Plan: Gut the Office of Congressional Ethics

After spending days and days giving away the store to secure his new position, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has promised lots of major action starting Monday—and one of the first items on his agenda is gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics. As the epidemic of Congressional stock ownership shows—ethics has never been Congress’ forte. But as one of the […]

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Ship Noise Is Totally Messing With These Crabs’ Sex Lives

This story was originally published by Hakai Magazine and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The constant thrum of ship engines and other human noises can be a real nuisance for many sea creatures, disrupting their feeding, navigation, and communication. Now a new study shows that ship noise can also kill the mood for amorous crabs. To […]

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Hakeem Jeffries Just Made History—and Gave a Helluva Speech

On Saturday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries made history as the first Black lawmaker to lead a congressional party, making a splash with his first official speech as House Minority leader in the wee hours of the morning. “As John Lewis would sometimes remind us on this floor, we may have come over on different ships but […]

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Here Are the Concessions Kevin McCarthy Had to Make to Become House Speaker

It’s finally over. After days of negotiations and 14 failed ballots—the most since 1860—Republican Kevin McCarthy was officially elected speaker of the House early Saturday morning. In exchange for the necessary votes to get him elected, the congressman had to beg, barter, and plead with a group of hardline Republicans who held out for a […]

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Watch House Republicans’ Near-Fight on the 14th Vote to Elect McCarthy House Speaker

It was late. Everyone was fried. And apparently, some Republicans had finally had enough. On Friday night, toward the end of the 14th (and penultimate) vote to elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House Speaker, McCarthy found himself walking over to Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who has been one of most outspoken conservative holdouts […]

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New Study Finds Gas Stoves a Key Cause of US Childhood Asthma

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. About one in eight cases of asthma in children in the United States is due to the pollution given off by cooking on gas stoves, new research has found, amid moves by Joe Biden’s administration to consider the regulation, or even […]

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For Four Days, C-SPAN Was the Greatest TV Channel in the World

12:29 a.m. ET: The House finally voted confirm Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. It’s been a wild ride. As midnight approached on the fourth day of House speaker voting, things were buzzing on C-SPAN. The freely accessible channel trained its briefly liberated cameras on Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as he appealed to holdout Rep. Matt […]

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Kevin McCarthy Is Cutting Deals With the Big Lie’s Worst Offenders

House Republicans are celebrating the anniversary of the January 6 attack by making it clear that they are not, in actual practice, against it. Would-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spent Friday morning and preceding days hurling concessions at some of the same far-right members of Congress who helped Donald Trump incite the riot and tried […]

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“This Place Rules” Is a People’s History of January 6

The 25-year-old documentarian Andrew Callaghan has been pissing off reporters lately. In his new HBO documentary, This Place Rules, Callaghan chronicles the events leading up to January 6, 2021, via dozens of man-on-the-street interviews with outlandish people of all stripes—from MAGA protesters to QAnon believers to self-proclaimed antifa members. In most scenes, Callaghan wears an […]

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“The Stick Is Much Bigger Than the Carrot” In Biden’s New Border Plan

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced new and stricter border enforcement measures that include the expansion of a Trump-era policy to summarily expel migrants and further restrict asylum seekers’ ability to seek protection at the border. In order to “increase security at the border and reduce the number of individuals crossing unlawfully between ports of […]

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Insurrection: January 6, Up Close and Firsthand

The work of photographer Nate Gowdy should be familiar to regular Mother Jones readers, especially those who’ve followed our January 6 reporting. His black-and-white photos captured the chaos as protesters marched from the “Stop the Steal” rally to the explosive swarming of the US Capitol. Gowdy’s new book, Insurrection, is among the first photo books […]

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House Speaker Fight Shows Election Deniers Who Tried To Overthrow Democracy Still Control GOP

On the first day of the new Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) delivered one of the nominating speeches for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was seeking the House speakership. Jordan bemoaned a “government that has been weaponized” against the American people and called for greater accountability. The next day, during a second round of failed […]

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The Rise and Fall of Stop the Steal’s Favorite Conference

The video was exceptionally violent even for a pro-Trump meme. With his face superimposed over that of Colin Firth from the 2014 movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, Donald Trump strides through the “Church of Fake News” and plunges a spear into the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He holds Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) hostage while blasting away […]

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Federal Government Approves World’s First Vaccine for Honeybees

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The world’s first vaccine for honeybees has been approved for use by the US government, raising hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination. The US Department of Agriculture has […]

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Yes, January 6 Was a Heavily Armed Insurrection

Two years after the January 6 disaster, evidence continues building that numerous extremists went to Washington that day armed with guns, tactical gear, and other weapons. The mass attack on Congress incited by Donald Trump was grisly and devastating: The Capitol Building was damaged and desecrated, scores of law enforcement agents were assaulted, a QAnon […]

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Which Has Stricter Entrance Policies: The House of Representatives or Yankee Stadium?

Yesterday afternoon, it hit me. As I watched C-SPAN yesterday, waiting for Republicans to get their shit together, I noticed something surprising: a lack of coffee cups in the hands of our nation’s elected representatives. I usually have an iced coffee glued to my palm, like most who hail from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. How could Rep. […]

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