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Mother Jones

Western States Pull Colorado River Deal Out of the Hat

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. After more than a year of intense negotiations, the states along the Colorado River have reached a deal to solve one of the most complex water crises in US history. The solution to this byzantine conundrum is deceptive in its simplicity: […]

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Daniel Penny Claims He Can’t Be Racist Because He Planned a Trip to Africa

In his first interview since being charged with second-degree manslaughter in the killing of Jordan Neely, Daniel Penny said that he couldn’t be “a white supremacist” because he was, among other things, “planning a road trip through Africa.” In an interview with the New York Post, the ex-Marine said that allegations against him of racism are “a […]

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Fossil Fuel Firms Owe $209 Billion a Year in Climate Reparations, Study Says

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The world’s top fossil fuel companies owe at least $209 billion in annual climate reparations to compensate communities most damaged by their polluting business and decades of lies, a new study calculates. BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Saudi Arabia’s state oil […]

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The Wall Street Journal Just Published a Revealing Story About Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates

The specifics of Bill Gates’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein have been an open question since details about their ties were revealed in 2019. In 2022, Gates’ ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, revealed that her then-husband’s relationship with the child predator financier even contributed to their divorce. On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal shed new light on their dynamic, […]

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Oceans Protect Us by Absorbing Vast Amounts of Heat—but Payback Is Coming

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. By the end of March, the surface temperature of the world’s oceans was above anything seen in the 40 years that satellites have been measuring it. Records were “headed off the charts” and, as the heat refused to fade for more […]

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Trump’s Republican Rivals Are Funneling Money to Daniel Penny

After Daniel Penny was charged on Friday with manslaughter for choking Jordan Neely to death on the F train, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) tweeted a link to donate to Penny’s legal defense fund. “We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny,” DeSantis wrote. “Let’s show this Marine…America’s got his back.” Other Republicans followed suit. “I […]

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A Problem for DeSantis: Reports Say He Has No Rizz

Former President Trump is a twice-impeached sexual abuser, who possesses a unique ability to make people laugh—unfortunately or fortunately, to use his verbiage. He made that clear at a CNN town hall last week, when he had an audience of mostly Republicans laughing hysterically over the charming subject of an alleged rape. However odious his behavior, Trump’s charisma—or, […]

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Liberals Aren’t the Ones Canceling Motherhood

First, liberals canceled Christmas. Then, Thanksgiving. Now, they’re throwing Mother’s Day out with the trash. At least, that’s how Fox News sees it. In a recent article, the right-wing site accused “the left” of “trying to erase mothers.” Among the apparent culprits are trans people. “A mother is a woman who by birth or adoption […]

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North Carolina Became an “Abortion Destination.” That’s In Danger.

On Saturday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed a bill that would ban most abortions in the state after 12 weeks. But this is far from the end: The Republican supermajority in the state legislature is poised to overturn the veto and enact an abortion ban. It would be a blow not just […]

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Lawsuit Aims to Keep Fire Retardants Out of Waterways

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On a hot, dry August day in 2002, air tankers swooped over a small wildfire south of Bend, Oregon. The Forest Service hoped to suppress the flames by dropping over a thousand pounds of fire retardant on and around the […]

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Feds Deem Black Community’s Waste System a Civil Rights Violation

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For as long as anyone can remember, the lack of a sanitation system in Lowndes County, Alabama, and resulting reliance on piping human waste directly into septic tanks and local creeks, has made life in the community miserable. After years of organizing […]

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The DOJ Just Moved to Stop Florida’s “Sabotage” of Biden’s Border Plans

Just hours before the pandemic-era immigration rule Title 42 was set to lift on Thursday, a Florida judge blocked President Joe Biden’s plan to release some migrants on “parole,” a policy aimed at reducing overcrowding in migrant detention facilities. Late Friday, the Biden administration asked for an emergency stay of the judge’s order, saying it […]

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Some Real Revelations From Prince Harry’s Ghostwriter

In this week’s New Yorker, JR Moehringer breaks all the rules of ghostwriting by ceasing to be invisible and asserting his hiding-in-plain-sight presence as the writer for Britain’s exiled Prince Harry’s blockbuster memoir Spare. Moehringer offers plenty to satisfy Royal obsessives, providing glimpses into their process, their relationship, and the genuine affection and respect that seems to have […]

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Louisiana Lawmakers Want to Release Youth Criminal Records. But First, Only In Majority Black Areas.

On Thursday, the Louisiana House passed a bill to make some juvenile criminal records public in three majority-Black parishes. Sponsors argue that providing the public with these records would offer transparency in crime-afflicted areas. If signed into law, the measure would serve as a two-year pilot program. Critics of the measure, House Bill 321, say the measure […]

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Why Business Lobbyists Want to Stop Labor Secretary Nominee Julie Su

This piece was published originally by Capital & Main. Business groups are vigorously opposing Julie Su, President Joe Biden’s nominee for labor secretary, and they are counting on a handful of votes from swing senators to defeat her confirmation. Leading the charge are trade groups representing companies like McDonald’s and Uber that currently are not the employers […]

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The Far North Is Burning—and Our Climate Will Pay the Price

This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Far North is both a massive carbon sink and a potent environmental time bomb. The region stores a huge amount of CO2 in boreal forests and underlying soils. Organic peat soil, for instance, covers just 3 percent of the Earth’s land area […]

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George Santos Surrenders to Face Federal Criminal Charges

George Santos, the freshman New York Republican who admitted to lying about entire swaths of his personal biography, has surrendered to face federal criminal charges. The Justice Department on Wednesday announced the 13 charges: seven for wire fraud, three for money laundering, two for making false statements on Congressional disclosure forms, and one for theft […]

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Alaskan Fishing Boats Are Poaching Threatened Canadian Salmon

This story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. American fishing boats catching threatened Canadian salmon was flagged as a top concern for federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray before meeting with the US ambassador to Canada in March. Briefing notes, which Canada’s National Observer obtained through an access-to-information request, […]

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Report: Man Risks Millions to Talk About Politics on Twitter

On Tuesday, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced that he would be sharing his political views on Twitter—just like the rest of us idiots. Carlson, who was let go by Fox News a few weeks ago, said he would relaunch his show “soon” on the social media website now run by Elon Musk. It […]

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Gov. Ron DeSantis Restricts Chinese Citizens From Buying Land in Florida

On Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed a bill banning Chinese nationals from buying land in Florida. He hopes the bill will go toward “counteracting” the “malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Florida,” according to a recent press release. “Today, it’s clear that we don’t want CCP in the Sunshine State,” said DeSantis at […]

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Donald Trump Sexually Abused and Defamed E. Jean Carroll, Jury Finds

A federal jury has found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who alleged that Trump raped her in 1996 in the dressing room of a New York City department store. The jury found that Carroll’s attorneys had failed to prove the rape allegation, […]

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Donald Trump Nabs the Critical Endorsement of His Wife

Donald Trump may have forgotten her birthday in between facing 34 felony charges related to allegedly paying off a porn actress he slept with four months after giving birth to their son. But Melania Trump is once again showcasing an extraordinary ability to ignore all that hideousness, telling Fox News that Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has […]

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This Supreme Court Case Could Kneecap the Executive Branch

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Supreme Court could once again hinder the ability of the executive branch to address climate change when it reconsiders the precedent, set almost 40 years ago, upon which many of its efforts rest. The court announced last Monday that it […]

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Jury to Decide Whether Donald Trump Raped and Defamed E. Jean Carroll

Attorneys for both sides in Donald Trump’s sexual assault and defamation civil lawsuit made their final pleas to the jury Monday, with rival attorneys for Trump and E. Jean Carroll, the writer who says Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in 1996, talking for hours, trying to sum up their cases. Carroll’s […]

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The Texas Mall Massacre and the Disturbing Evolution of America’s Mass Shootings

The gun rampage at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas, on Saturday that left at least eight people dead, seven injured, and countless others traumatized is the latest in a worsening American phenomenon. The horrific event continues several trends, including some I reported on after the recent mass shootings at a school in Nashville and […]

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Jordan Neely’s Family Is Demanding Justice. Protesters in New York Agree.

Amid rising protests calling for justice in the case of Jordan Neely, his family is demanding charges against the man who put their loved one in a chokehold. Daniel Penny, an ex-marine from Long Island, choked Neely, who was reportedly unhoused and asking for food, on a New York subway car on May 3. On […]

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Greg Abbott Wants You to Know the Mass Shooting Victims Were No Angels

On Friday, a man in Cleveland, Texas, killed five of his neighbors after they complained about him firing an AR-15 on his property late at night. On Sunday, with the shooter still at large and “zero leads” as to his whereabouts, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the victims weren’t so innocent either. Law enforcement […]

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Judge Rejects Trump’s Request for a Mistrial in E. Jean Carroll Case

The judge in Donald Trump’s civil rape and defamation trial denied a request by the former president’s attorney to grant a mistrial in the case on Monday. The motion, which was filed Sunday night by Trump attorney Joe Tacopina, amounted to a laundry list of complaints that Judge Lewis Kaplan hadn’t been fair to Tacopina, […]

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Rep. Zooey Zephyr Sues Over Removal From Montana State House Floor

Last week, the Republican-controlled Montana House of Representatives voted to bar Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state’s first transgender woman lawmaker, from the floor for the rest of the session. Her offense? Telling GOP lawmakers that they had “blood on their hands” for supporting a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. Zephyr’s expulsion from the […]

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Private Equity Giant Bills Itself a Climate Leader. A New Report Calls BS.

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A leading private equity firm that claims to be an industry climate leader in fact almost doubled its average annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel investments over the past decade, according to new research. The Carlyle Group’s portfolio of […]

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