Mother Jones: Posts

Mother Jones

The CDC Warns of an Increase in Antibiotic-Resistant Stomach Infections

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention are warning public health officials about a significant uptick in stomach infections caused by an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria. On Friday, the CDC issued an advisory, saying that they’re monitoring an increase in cases of shigellosis, an illness that can cause diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. Caused by […]

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Newspapers Pull “Dilbert” After Creator Scott Adams Calls Black People a “Hate Group”

It’s a sad day for fans of mediocre comic strips. The long-running series Dilbert will be removed from several local and national publications after its creator, Scott Adams, called Black Americans a “hate group” and urged white Americans to “get the fuck away” from them in a recently uploaded YouTube video. On Friday, publications like […]

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Human Composting Poised to Become a Billion-Dollar Industry

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Americans are looking for greener ways to die, and a new wave of deathcare startups are rising to the occasion. After death, bodies are typically handled in one of two ways: embalmed and buried in a casket, or incinerated and […]

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One Year Into Russia’s Brutal Invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy Vows to Fight for Victory

In a speech marking the first anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday vowed to push for victory and praised Ukrainians for their enduring strength. “Our faith has grown stronger. Our morale has been reinforced. We endured the first day of a full-scale war,” Zelenskyy said in a defiant speech that referred to […]

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The Awe-Inspiring Ukrainian Evacuation Effort that Started With a Group Chat

The messages left on the group chat are the record of a modern-day exodus. “There is only one way out of Melitopol,” the group chat administrator cautioned on September 20, referring to the Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine. “There are not any safer routes!!!” Other messages are more personal. “Looking for a spot for a […]

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The Missionary Positions of Nikki Haley’s Idol: Pastor John Hagee

John Hagee’s been around. And around. And around. The pastor has been a prominent figure in GOP presidential races for years, with his support sought after by candidates from the Bushes (H. and W.) to Trump—and now Nikki Haley. As the founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas (established in 1966), Hagee made a name […]

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The Surprising Communities Thriving in the Time of War

After waking to the sound of explosions on February 24, 2022, the morning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Anastasiya Volkova knew that she and her family had to leave Kyiv. They were visiting the city from their home, an ecovillage, in the Ukrainian countryside two hours south of the capital, far from where the sound […]

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Biden Urged to Reject Texas Oil Terminals That Could Create “Carbon Bombs”

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Joe Biden’s administration has been urged not to sink its own climate goals by approving an unprecedented ramp-up of oil export infrastructure off the Texas coast that could result in planet-heating emissions equivalent to three years of the US’s entire emissions output. […]

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Sam Bankman-Fried Was Indicted for Hundreds of Illegal Campaign Donations. Who Else Knew?

On Thursday prosecutors updated their indictments against former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, expanding on allegations the feds initially filed in December. Bankman-Fried ran the now-collapsed FTX crypto-trading platform and made a name for himself as a disheveled, casually dressed boy genius. He made no secret of his desire to use his new wealth to support […]

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A Mississippi Police Officer Who Shot a Black 15-Year-Old in the Head Won’t Face Criminal Charges

Four months after a Mississippi police officer shot a Black 15-year-old, Jaheim McMillan, in the head outside a Family Dollar store, the state’s Department of Public Safety has released video footage of the encounter, following the state attorney general’s announcement Wednesday that a grand jury found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by law enforcement. The […]

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Senator Who Helped Save Private Equity’s Favorite Loophole Goes to Work for Private Equity

One of my favorite recent documents in American politics is Evan Bayh’s schedules from his last year in office as a Democratic senator from Indiana. In the months following his 2010 announcement that he would retire rather than seek re-election, the Associated Press reported, the man who was almost Barack Obama’s running mate “held more […]

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Mother Jones

Whale Deaths Are Now Culture War Fodder

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Thousands gathered at New Jersey’s Point Pleasant beach on Sunday with a united mission: to pause offshore wind projects in response to recent whale deaths along the New York-New Jersey coast. The gathering unfolded even as officials dispute the notion […]

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Mother Jones

Will SCOTUS Overturn this 1996 Law Governing the Internet?

In November 2015, Nohemi Gonzalez was a 23-year-old California State University-Long Beach student studying abroad in Paris. That’s when a coordinated series of terrorist shootings and bombings in the city killed 130 people. She was one of them. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks—but Gonzalez’s family charges that the massive search engine Google is also partially […]

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Virginia Has Its Own Ron DeSantis, and He’s Taking Aim at African American Studies

In his seemingly never-ending quest to remove “divisive concepts” from Virginia’s schools, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has taken a page right out of Ron DeSantis’s playbook and called for a review Virginia’s AP African-American studies programs. According to a report this weekend from the Washington Post, Youngkin, a Republican, asked state officials to review the curriculum to […]

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Mother Jones

The Corruption at Fox News Is Worse Than You Assumed

Editor’s note: The below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter is written by David twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories about politics and media; his unvarnished take on the events of the day; film, book, television, podcast, and music recommendations; interactive audience features; and more. Subscribing costs just $5 a […]

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Big Oil Expands Assault on California’s Health and Climate Laws

This piece was originally published by Capital & Main. Over the last few years, as California has introduced stronger regulations on oil and gas drilling aimed at protecting public health, a pattern of events has started to emerge. Here’s how it typically goes: After years of advocacy, environmentalists successfully push for new oil and gas drilling regulations. Then the […]

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Toxic Train Fiasco: Bad PR Breeds Distrust in East Palestine, Ohio

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. During his Thursday visit to the site of a fiery train derailment that may have poisoned a small eastern Ohio town with a range of highly toxic chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency chief, Michael Regan, told residents: “All families need to know […]

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Mother Jones

Who Saves Animals Abandoned During War?

As the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches, assessing the extent of the enormous toll on lives is impossible. Millions of people have been forced from their homes and tens of thousands have been killed, while cities and towns throughout the country have been destroyed. In the midst of the suffering, remarkable […]

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“Ludicrous and Life-Threatening”—Biden Just Announced a Transit Ban for Migrants

After weeks of anticipation, the Biden administration has finally followed through with the plan to revive a policy first proposed during the Trump administration. It would make migrants ineligible for asylum in the United States if they don’t first seek protection in countries they passed through on their way. The proposal for the so-called transit […]

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Fox News Weaponizes the East Palestine Train Derailment for the White Grievance Crowd

For a group that constantly complains that Democrats enjoy “making everything about race,” the right’s biggest names are suddenly eager to push the narrative that the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and the Biden administration’s response to the disaster are the result of racism against white people. That’s the big takeaway from Tucker Carlson, […]

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Homes in Flood Zones Overvalued by Billions, Study Finds

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. American homes in flood zones are overvalued by hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Nature Climate Change. Low-income homeowners in states controlled by Republicans are especially at risk of seeing their home values deflate […]

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Vanderbilt Staff Used AI to Email Students About the Michigan State Shooting

After the recent shooting at the University of Michigan, staff at Vanderbilt University in Nashville sent an email offering support and comfort to students. “In the wake of the Michigan shootings,” it read, referring to the February 13 attack that left three students dead and five injured, “let us come together as a community to […]

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Billionaire Beware: This 17-Year-Old Is Tracking Your Carbon Emissions

A wealthy executive I interviewed for my book a couple of years ago told me that his kids had attended Lakeside Elementary, the same Seattle school where the Gateses, the Bezoses, and other local tech royalty sent their children. “Someone flew a private jet to one of the soccer games,” he said. That “someone” is […]

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Did the US Military Take Out a $12 Hobbyist Balloon With a $400,000 Missile?

The United States has popped a whole bunch of balloons lately. Earlier this month, famously, an American fighter jet took out a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina with a Sidewinder missile. In the weeks to follow, American jets shot down three more objects floating high above the United States and Canada. […]

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Brighter and Brighter: How Light Pollution Is Erasing the Stars

This story was originally published by WIRED and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Years ago, Christopher Kyba was skeptical about astronomy data collected by citizen scientists—after all, it relies on people making naked-eye assessments of the night sky. But when a student wrote to him with a question about measuring the sky’s brightness, he thought […]

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Lake Powell’s Water Levels Sink to Another Record Low

The water level at Lake Powell, the massive reservoir on the Colorado River whose southern reaches straddle the Utah-Arizona border, hit a record low this week, sinking to just 3,522 feet above sea level. A 23-year megadrought combined with climate change has left the reservoir at just 22 percent of its capacity—so low that it […]

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Former President Jimmy Carter Begins Hospice Care

Former President Jimmy Carter has decided to begin hospice care in his Plains, Georgia home. The news was disclosed on Saturday in a brief statement from the Carter Center: After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive […]

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Bing Is a Liar—and It’s Ready to Call the Cops

“You’re in!” the email said. “Welcome to the new Bing!” Last Sunday, I joined a small wave of users granted early access to Microsoft’s new chatbot backed search engine, put forward as an “AI-powered copilot for the web.” Given that “multiple millions” across 169 countries were stuck on the waitlist, I felt like Charlie waving […]

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As Biden Dispatches Disaster Relief to East Palestine, Trump Takes Credit

On Friday evening, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted the “breaking” news that father would visit East Palestine, Ohio, next week, in the wake of the train derailment there whose aftermath has cloaked the region in a toxic cloud, killed thousands of fish, and required the evacuation of residents who fear longterm health risks. Breaking News: Trump […]

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It’s Official: US Determines Russia has Committed “Crimes Against Humanity” in Ukraine

On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris told an international security gathering that the United States has formally determined that Russian forces have committed “crimes against humanity” during their invasion of Ukraine. “There is no doubt: These are crimes against humanity.” “Let us be clear: Russian forces have pursued a widespread and systemic attack against a […]

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