Mother Jones
Once the coronavirus made its human debut, it wasn’t long before scientists found the virus in our poop. Fecal samples from the earliest patients, including the first known case in America, revealed people were shedding the virus not only from their noses and mouths, but also through their excrement. This would turn out to be […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. At the end of May, Brazilian lawmakers approved legislation that would invalidate Indigenous land claims and open protected Indigenous lands to mining, road-building, agriculture, and other extractive industries. The legislation was overwhelmingly endorsed in the nation’s conservative-dominated lower house and has now […]
Mother JonesThe Republican Party of Iowa announced on Saturday that they had landed on January 15, 2024 for its first-in-the-nation presidential caucus. That happens to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day: the sole federal holiday honoring the legacy of a Black individual. After a chaotic caucus in 2020, in which technology glitches led to delays in […]
Mother JonesUS-China relations have long been tenuous, and the last two years have been no exception. There was the US diplomatic boycott of Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics. In August, China fired ballistic missiles after Nancy Pelosi—at the time, the Speaker of the House—visited Taiwan. Then in October, the US Commerce Department placed sweeping restrictions on China […]
Mother JonesThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization was designed to help member countries rebuild and bolster security after World War II through something called “collective defense.” In essence, an attack against one member is considered an attack against all members: Everyone in NATO is supposed to rally as if it were their own country being attacked. For […]
Mother JonesAn early morning shooting left nine people injured in Cleveland, Ohio on Sunday. Cleveland Police say they responded after gunfire near the block of West 6th Street and Johnson Court—a downtown intersection surrounded by clubs, bars, and a liquor store—at around 2:30 a.m. They arrived to find nine people injured, according to Cleveland 19 News. […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Month-old kittens scamper around, tumbling into one another on the grass. A black-and-white border collie, Maggie, nestles against the side of a farmhouse and nurses a puppy. Beef cattle graze on the hillside behind the house, which has been vacant […]
Mother JonesEarth’s average temperature hit an unofficial record high on Tuesday, according to the University of Maine’s climate data website Climate Reanalyzer: 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit (17.18 degrees Celsius). It wasn’t a fluke. The temperature hit the same reading on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, the average surpassed the brand new record, hitting 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Until last week, […]
Mother JonesTennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors can to go into effect—at least for the time being. In late June, a district court had halted a ban on minors receiving care such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy on the grounds that the restrictions in the bill, which Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee […]
Mother JonesTwo and a half years after January 6, lawyers who helped former president Donald Trump use lies about election fraud to try to retain power are finally starting to face sanctions for their actions. On Friday, a legal ethics committee recommended that Rudy Giuliani, who helped Trump’s legal efforts following election day in 2020, be […]
Mother JonesOver the last two years, Republican state politicians have done their best to wipe out access to gender-affirming medical care for trans adolescents. In a flurry of lawmaking—coordinated by conservative Christian legal groups and think tanks, and backed by fringe doctors and activists who deny that anyone is truly transgender—a whopping 20 states have passed […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Solar power cells have raced past the key milestone of 30 percent energy efficiency, after innovations by multiple research groups around the world. The feat makes this a “revolutionary” year, according to one expert, and could accelerate the rollout of solar […]
Mother JonesIn May, Starbucks abruptly shuttered a unionized store in Ithaca, New York. This week, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Starbucks had violated federal labor law and ordered the company to reopen the store. The College Avenue store, near Cornell University, was one of three Ithaca stores that closed after workers unionized, a […]
Mother JonesBrazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva campaigned on a promise to stop the deforestation of the Amazon that had accelerated under former president Jair Bolsonaro. The early results are promising. Deforestation dropped 33.6 percent during the first six months of Lula’s term, according to government satellite data released this week. The new data present […]
Mother JonesTracie Bernardi Guzman felt betrayed by her governor. Back in 2018, Bernardi Guzman had shared her story with Ned Lamont, the Democrat who, at the time, was running to be Connecticut’s chief executive. She told Lamont about the two decades she’d spent in prison—and about her suicide attempt in her fifth out of seven years in […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A constitutional legal strategy is gaining traction as a way to potentially help bring about climate justice, boosted by a recent high-profile trial in which 16 young plaintiffs spoke movingly about how the climate crisis has affected their lives. That […]
Mother JonesIn MAGA World, Karoline Leavitt is a rising star. A former Trump White House staffer, she won national notice last year when, at just 25 years of age, she captured the GOP nomination for a New Hampshire congressional seat. In April, she was hired as a spokesperson by Trump’s SuperPAC. But earlier this year, her […]
Mother JonesIn MAGA world, Karoline Leavitt is a rising star. A former Trump White House staffer, she won national notice last year when, at just 25 years of age, she captured the GOP nomination for a New Hampshire congressional seat. In April, she was hired as a spokesperson by Trump’s super-PAC. But earlier this year, her focus […]
Mother JonesLast Friday morning, at the beginning of a hot June day in Philadelphia, I walked through a phalanx of about a hundred protesters in order to make my way to the Joyful Warriors Summit, the annual convention of the parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty. It was early in the day, but the bass from […]
Mother JonesFrom February to April, four men were found dead in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. The Austin Police Department said these were all accidental drownings, caused by a combination of alcohol and easy access to the lake, which can be challenging to see at night. At the time, I’d heard faint rumors of a […]
Mother JonesThe same day Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Daniel Penny with manslaughter for choking to death Jordan Neely—a homeless man who’d been acting in a way Penny perceived as threatening—Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) recorded a podcast. Elites, he told listeners, were making the common man fearful of defending himself while allowing criminals to roam […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can […]
Mother JonesWhy the hell did President Joe Biden nominate a one-time protector of war criminals to a top administration post? On the Monday before July 4—a black hole day for news—the White House let drop the word that it was appointing Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The commission’s job is […]
Mother JonesThe largest American labor strike in over 60 years looks increasingly likely: Early this morning, negotiations between UPS and the Teamsters broke down, according to a press release from the union. In June, about 97 percent of the UPS rank-and-file voted to authorize a strike if the contract negotiations did not result in a new […]
Mother JonesHow did you spend your Fourth of July? I spent a considerable amount of time in the ocean, floating above the hum of anxieties, both personal and existential, that typically soundtrack my days. But outside the cocoon of cool waves, those gentle swells that numb the pain of existence, the earth around me apparently experienced its […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Oil and gas companies in West Texas released hundreds of tons of toxic gases into the air last week as a record-breaking heatwave drove pressure inside pipelines and compressors to dangerously high levels. One company, Houston-based Targa Resources, […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Some of the world’s best-known climate campaign groups have taken millions of dollars in donations from a foundation run by billionaire hedge fund bosses whose investment fund has invested in fossil fuel companies, the Guardian has learned. Groups including the European […]
Mother JonesThree Massachusetts-based civil rights groups are challenging donor and legacy admissions at Harvard University, arguing that the practice gives an unfair boost to mostly white students whose family members are either alumni or wealthy donors. The complaint comes days after the Supreme Court’s decision ending affirmative action in higher education. The 31-page complaint, filed with the […]
Mother JonesEditor’s note: The below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a month—but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Our Land here. Please check it out. This Fourth of […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Pastor Philip Schmitter waited more than 20 years for the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job. In 1992, he’d filed a civil rights complaint to halt the construction of a power station that would spew toxic lead into the air of […]