Mother Jones: Posts

Mother Jones

Swords, Coats, a $24,000 Dagger: The Trumps Failed to Report 117 Foreign Gifts

Donald Trump and his family members accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts from foreign leaders as they travelled the world and welcomed dignitaries to the White House. But according to a new report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, the former president and his family failed to properly report many of those gifts, […]

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Trump Says He Will Be “Arrested” on Tuesday, Demands Protests

Former president Donald Trump posted on his social media platform early Saturday morning that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in New York City—and that he wants his followers to protest. Trump has been under investigation in multiple jurisdictions around the country for years. But action seems near, as this week it was reported […]

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The World Is Running Out of Fresh Water Fast

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The world is facing an imminent water crisis, with demand expected to outstrip the supply of fresh water by 40 percent by the end of this decade, experts have said on the eve of a crucial UN water summit. Governments must […]

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Mike Flynn and MAGA Activists Wage War Against a Florida Hospital

Before last year, the public monthly board meetings of the board of Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, were sleepy affairs, typically drawing just a handful of attendees. The hospital, a 98-year-old public healthcare system that serves more than a million patients a year, was considered a crown jewel of the community: A highly rated […]

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Steve Bannon Is Neck-Deep in Guo Wengui’s Allegedly Fraudulent Business Empire

In late November 2021, Steve Bannon appeared in a live broadcast on GTV, a media outlet that he’d helped his friend Guo Wengui launch a year earlier. Bannon used the appearance to celebrate HCoin, a supposed cryptocurrency that Guo was selling. The currency, Bannon said, was a “monumental” and “extraordinary” success. Bannon also hailed the Himalaya […]

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“This Was My Baby”: The Family of Black Man Killed By Cops While Experiencing Mental Crisis Speaks Out

Two days after Virginia deputies were charged with second-degree murder for the killing of a Black man at a state mental hospital, the victim’s family made their first public appearance on Thursday, having viewed the footage of his death. On March 6, seven Henrico County officers allegedly smothered 28-year-old Irvo Otieno, who was handcuffed, shackled, […]

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Why Didn’t Regulators See Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse Coming?

Last week, Silicon Valley Bank, one of the most prominent banks used by the venture capital and startup sectors, collapsed. SVB’s rapid crash—the largest such failure since the 2008 financial crisis—grabbed headlines and generated concern: How could a bank with nearly $210 billion in assets fall apart in just a matter of days? And, perhaps […]

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Silicon Valley Finally Figured Out People Don’t Like It

During the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, people in tech started to realize something: a lot of people really don’t like them. Since the bank started to buckle late last week, tech luminaries have taken time out of their busy schedules of doing innovation to tweet about how everyone rooting against a bailout of Silicon Valley […]

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The GOP Is Flirting With This Hungarian Autocrat’s Generous—And Exclusionary—Family Benefits

Hungary, the landlocked Central European country of about ten million people, has become an unusual role model for US conservatives, with Tucker Carlson describing it as a place “with a lot of lessons for the rest of us.” Since 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has transformed the democratic country into a right-wing autocracy, or in his […]

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Rich Nations Are Burying the Developing World in Plastic Waste

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. High-income countries have long sent their waste abroad to be thrown away or recycled—and an independent team of experts says they’re inundating the developing world with much more plastic than previously estimated. According to a new analysis published last week, United […]

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Who Killed Rasheem Carter?

On a Saturday in early October, Rasheem Carter, a 25-year-old Black man visiting rural Taylorsville, Mississippi, for work, called his mother in a panic. Some white guys were following him in three trucks, he said, and yelling racial slurs. He feared they would hurt him. His mother, Tiffany Carter, who lived two hours away in […]

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MAGA Mogul Guo Wengui Charged in $1 Billion Fraud Scheme

Guo Wengui, an erratic Chinese exile who has a close relationship with Steve Bannon, was arrested Wednesday and charged with running a massive scheme to defraud an international coterie of online fans out of more than $1 billion. According to a federal indictment unsealed this morning, Guo, who also uses the names Miles Guo and […]

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He’s the Most Popular President In the World. Everyone Hates Him.

Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, is a 52-year-old Swiss-Italian with dark eyebrows and an intensely round, perfectly bald head, like a soccer ball that had a dream of becoming an accountant. He splits his time between Zurich, Doha, and anywhere in the world that wants him—a stadium ribbon-cutting in Mauritania; a second-division match in […]

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Bone Tired. Underpaid. Performing Surgery. What Could Go Wrong?

When I visited my cousin Beija in Munich last summer, her boyfriend, Julius, told me he was in his second year of surgery residency, and I was surprised by how well rested he looked. He and Beija had just returned from a boozy wedding over a long weekend, and as we watched soccer, ate schnitzel […]

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Biden’s Approval of Alaska Oil Project Shows Inconsistency of Our First “Climate President”

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Joe Biden continues to confound on the climate crisis. Hailed as America’s first “climate president,” Biden signed sweeping, landmark legislation to tackle global heating last year and has warned that rising temperatures are an “existential threat to humanity.” And yet, on […]

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Will One Controversial Texas Judge Outlaw the Most Popular Form of Abortion for the Whole Country?

For weeks, abortion rights advocates have been waiting for a potential bombshell: A conservative federal judge in Texas is expected to effectively outlaw the most popular method of abortion nationwide. Now, the day may finally be here. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee affiliated with the religious right, scheduled a hearing in the lawsuit challenging […]

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So Now Trump Is Stealing “Meatball Ron’s” Worst Education Policies

In late 2021, parental rights candidate Glenn Youngkin secured his stay at Virginia’s Executive Mansion with a push from devoted “mama bears”—a group of, yes, mothers, who were angry about a perceived threat of government overreach and ideological indoctrination in schools. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis counts on his army of Moms for Liberty to propel his […]

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Ohio Is Suing Norfolk Southern

The state of Ohio is suing Norfolk Southern over the company’s train derailment in East Palestine last month, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday. “This derailment was entirely avoidable,” Yost said at a press briefing Tuesday, “and I’m concerned that Norfolk Southern may be putting profits for their own company above the health and safety […]

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Misuse of Phosphorus Is Wreaking Havoc, Scientists Warn

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Our planet faces “phosphogeddon,” scientists have warned. They fear our misuse of phosphorus could lead to deadly shortages of fertilizers that would disrupt global food production. At the same time, phosphate fertilizer washed from fields—together with sewage inputs into rivers, lakes and […]

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20 Striking Images of Israeli Democracy Under Siege

Since late January, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been loudly protesting an impending judicial overhaul by the nation’s new right-wing government. The most controversial part of proposal gives the Knesset, Israeli’s parliament, the power to overrule supreme court rulings with a simple majority vote. Which means the nation’s top court would be unable to […]

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Shut Up About “Woke.” I’m Trying to Actually Understand the Bank Collapse.

Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday amid a bank run. The reasons are complex, even for those well-versed in the jargon of finance. (I am not.) The gist is that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in hopes of taming inflation. That requires banks to pay higher rates on their deposits. But since SVB’s […]

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Biden Approves Major Alaskan Oil Drilling Project

President Biden on Monday approved a massive oil drilling project in Alaska that environmentalists and Native American communities warn could pose significant climate and health risks. The Willow Project, a 30-year-long development, is predicted to pump 280 million metric tons of climate pollution, the equivalent of running 2.5 coal plants for the same amount of […]

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Your Sewage Treatment Plant Is Spewing Methane

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Wastewater treatment plants are typically overlooked when it comes to reducing greenhouse gasses, but new research from Princeton University reveals the plants emit twice as much methane as previously thought. Methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas and the treatment plants […]

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Trump Said He Might Have Let Russia “Take Over” Parts of Ukraine. Fox News Edited It Out.

Last week, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he could have stopped the invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to “take over” parts of Ukraine. “I could have negotiated. I could’ve made a deal to take over something,” Trump said in a radio interview Monday. “There are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, […]

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Finally, The End of Tár

Tonight, the Oscars and finally, I hope, the end of Tár—a movie I hated. It is nominated for six awards, including Best Picture. Before this is over, I want to say one last time: This movie is middlebrow crap. In this turgid, conservative (politically, yes, but aesthetically, truly a conservative film) our main character, Lydia […]

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Mike Pence’s Harshest Critique of January 6 Comes Too Late

Mike Pence is fighting to avoid testifying before a grand jury investigating January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. He blew off the congressional committee that looked into the matter, too. But the former vice president was willing to talk about the attack Saturday night at a white-tie dinner for politicians and journalists in Washington. “President Trump […]

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Stop Saving (Only) Cute Animals

This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The biodiversity crisis is a math problem. Unlike most math problems, however, this is one where getting hung up on the precise numbers can lead you astray. Maybe 1 million species are at risk of extinction. Or if you’re going by […]

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Long Before Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse, Its CEO Helped Kill Tougher Oversight of Banks Like His

On Friday, regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank, one of the most prominent banks in Silicon Valley’s venture capital and startup hub. The bank’s collapse, the largest such failure since the 2008 financial crisis, has roiled the tech industry, in part because many venture capitalists and startups had millions in the bank coffers. The fate of […]

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Admitted Liar George Santos: I Never Led a Giant Credit Card Skimming Scheme

It’s another week in Washington, which for Rep. George Santos, means another week contending with new claims of wrongdoing and criminal activity. “I’m innocent,” Santos said, rejecting the latest allegations on Friday. “I never did anything of criminal activity and I’m no mastermind of anything.” So what is Santos vehemently denying this time? Could it be […]

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Trump’s Access Hollywood Tape Can Be Used in Defamation Lawsuit

A federal judge on Friday said that the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape recording of Donald Trump bragging that his celebrity allows him to “grab” women by the “pussy” can be used in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against the former president. Judge Lewis Kaplan also rejected Trump’s request to block two other women […]

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